Diving Stornoway (Harris and Lewis)

[lrat]

Hi fellow divers.

This is a question for those of you who have dived Harris and Lewis.
I'm considering planning a trip to the Outer Hebrides, I want to know whether there are some (BSAC or SSAC) dive centers whom organize day trips and if you know about basic accommodation that can accommodate a group of 16?
I have been to St. Kilda and Skye before. I know the area very well, except, I have never been on land in Harris or Lewis.

Best regards,

Luke
Melbourne, Australia

[Ben Panter]

Hi Luke,

I was part of an expedition surveying Loch Roag (http://www.expeditions.ed.ac.uk/seasearch.doc) a few years ago - fantastic diving, but very bleak and often blown out. I don't know of any diving centres or Schools up there, but there are various hard boats (all liveaboards I think) who might be able to help you - try Northern Light (http://www.northernlight-uk.com). If you're desperate for a day boat, you might persuade the Lochaline boats (http://www.lochaline-boats.co.uk/) to move up there for a week. There is also a BSAC branch up there, many of the members have their own boats and they have a compressor in the harbour in Stornaway - I'm afraid I don't have contact details for them, but you could probably get in touch via HQ. We stayed in a static caravan park just outside Stornaway when we were there - cheap and not very cheerful, but we were diving pretty hard so hardly noticed.

Ben

[Edward]

Hi fellow divers.

This is a question for those of you who have dived Harris and Lewis.
I'm considering planning a trip to the Outer Hebrides, I want to know whether there are some (BSAC or SSAC) dive centers whom organize day trips and if you know about basic accommodation that can accommodate a group of 16?
I have been to St. Kilda and Skye before. I know the area very well, except, I have never been on land in Harris or Lewis.

Best regards,

Luke
Melbourne, Australia

Have a look around the BSAC Travel Club site, starting with this page.

http://www.bsactravelclub.co.uk/where/uk/nwws/nwscotlandintro.htm

Regards

Edward

[Ben Panter]

Edward,

I did have a look there, but sadly there is not more than a paragraph on Lewis and Harris, and nothing that I could find in any of the reports. I can feel the all seeing eye of Allie beaming in on me to write one for Lewis and loch Roag already...

cheers,

Ben

[Alison Boler]

Ben,
I am watching you and radiating my will towards you OMMMMMMMMMMMM Report.... REPORT... You are unable to resist..... your fingers begin to type.....
...
LOL
:)
I found this report in Diver

http://www.divernet.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?id=3722&section=1031&action=display&show=

Also, you might contact this centre

http://www.uistoutdoorcentre.co.uk/
who are recommended by our North Scotland Regional Coaching team.

I'm sure the coaching team themselves would be pleased to advise you. Here is a link to their regional website.

http://northscotland.bsacregions.org/links.htm

It looks fantastic.

All the best
Allie

[lrat]

Thanks for all your help.
I am familiar with the Uist outdoor center, but they are a fair bit away from Stornoway or Uig. I checked out the mv Cuma and that can be an option. Anyway, what I want to say is there is not many options for Harris/Lewis. One would expect otherwise.
Many thanks for all your replies.

[Ben Panter]

Dunno about expecting otherwise - it's a very long way from most places. Even living in Edinburgh it would take me the best part of a day to get there, and the Calmac ferries aren't cheap if you want to take a car. Flying might be an option, but I'm not sure how regular the service is. Match all this to the very high probability of being blown out and I think it makes sense.

Having said all that, get up there and dive it - it's amazing!

cheers,

Ben

[mocathe1st]

I know this post is a bit old now, but for anyone interested in diving round the Isles of Lewis and Harris, the Lewis and Harris Sub Aqua club has recently launched their club website, which provides contact details and will in future have more info on Hebridean diving etc.

The website is at: http://lhsac.org

Cheers,
Malcolm Murray