DIVE IRELAND

Home

Dive Centres

Dive Clubs

Dive Sites

Links

click to enlarge

St. John's Point

St. John's Point is a peninsula situated in the North West of Ireland. To reach "The Point" follow the N15 to the town of Donegal. Proceed on the N5 through the villages of Mountcharles and Dunkineely. Approximately 500m outside the village of Dunkineely take the first left and continue out along this road which runs through the middle of the peninsula.
St. John's Point offers a variety of dive sites, both shore and boat diving. The most suitable location to launch the boat is from the small beach, marked X, keep to the right hand side of the beach to launch, there are some stones. a van or 4-wheel drive vehicle will allow you to take the boat and trailer right down to the water's edge.

There is also a pier at Ballysaggart but it is very restricted. in particular there are no parking facilities there and the road leading to it is extremely narrow and in bad repair. It is also possible to launch from Cassan Sound, but equally restricted.

Diving on the South of the peninsula is well protected from the North and North west winds. Alternatively it is possible to dive on the North side where the diving is shallower and more "kelpy". In general this site is more suitable as an alternative dive site. For shore diving, access to this site is marked at point Y.

The most popular dive sites are: "Black Rock", "Portnagh Rock" and "Skuddagh Rock". The former is a boat dive and the latter excellent shore dives.

Black Rock
This is a very accessible boat dive. Boats may be most easily launched from the beach. It is a very short trip to the dive site. The best diving is on the South West end of the rock. This dive offers a nice sheer rock face which shelves to the bottom at 20m. there is always an abundance of marine life and plenty of crevices to tempt the "curious" diver.

The general area of the rock offers an ideal opportunity for deeper dives. From the chart it is evident that 40m is easily obtainable. As this is a particularly sheltered side of the peninsula it is ideal for training purposes.

Again working from the beach and moving out past Black Rock there is plenty of boat diving along the SW of the peninsula and along the Northern tip. Modern RIBs with high powered engines allow a wide variety of diving in this area.

Portnagh Rock
This is the most popular shore dive in the area. It is extremely accessible with a set of steps leading down into the water. Again it is well sheltered from the prevailing winds and diving is possible all the year round. This site is at the very end of the road beside the lighthouse. the rock is nearly always visible and the snorkel out to it only takes a few minutes.

Again, this site offers a sheer face down to 30m with plenty of fish life and crevices.   At the bottom of the face is a very interesting area of large rocks and boulders offering plenty of holes, gullies and small ledges. The rocks extend down to 25m.

On a full tide it is relatively easy to acquire a 30m dive. Just continue out from the rocks onto sand, where a small ledge is reached and the required depth. As you move out from the point there is a current on the flood tide. Overall the general area of this rock offers a range of depths and underwater terrain to suit the needs of most divers. It is very suitable for small groups of divers without boat facilities.

Skuddagh Rock
This is also a shore dive, accessed from the same point. the divers can snorkel out through the gully between the rock and the mainland and the actual dive is a circle of rock. it is a slightly more challenging dive than Portnagh Rock.