Biraghty Mor

The dive

Biraghty Mór is a rocky outcrop on the open coast between Kilkee Bay and Donegal Point, about ten minutes by boat from the East End pier in Kilkee. It breaks the surface and runs roughly north to south, with the smaller Biraghty Beag alongside it. The dive centre's own profile is a free descent to around 30 m onto a boulder field at the foot of the rock, then a slow climb up the wall, which continues up to and through the surface.

Dublin University Sub-Aqua Club dived it in June 2009 and dropped in at the north end on the landward side. They describe a sheer face full of cracks with life at every depth and boulders at the bottom of the wall; they stayed between 20 and 25 m and noted that you could go a good bit deeper. What their write-up dwells on is fish: big shoals of pollack, ballan and cuckoo wrasse close enough to follow divers around, and tompot blennies in the cracks. The dive centre adds flatfish and the occasional John Dory, with sponges and anemones over the wall face.

There is no shore access here and no fallback if the sea gets up. Kilkee Sub Aqua Club's own site notes say Biraghty Mór gives a sheltered dive on the leeward side, which is another way of saying that which side is divable depends on the day's wind and swell. The sites off Kilkee are not tidal in the sense of a run to time: DUSAC record the dive boats working in and out all day, so the planning question here is swell, not slack water.

• Wall from a boulder field at about 30 m up to the surface
• Shoals of pollack and wrasse logged by DUSAC in 2009
• Tompot blennies and crustaceans in the wall cracks
• Roughly ten minutes by boat from Kilkee pier

Conditions

Cold, unheated North Atlantic water on a fully exposed coast. DUSAC's summary of Kilkee is that it is very weather-dependent, but that when you do get out the water is usually extremely clear; their June 2023 trip found visibility only 'alright'. No source we read publishes a visibility or water-temperature figure for this site, so we have left both blank rather than guess. Currents are not the issue — the club records the sites here as non-tidal — but swell is, and Biraghty Mór only works on its lee side.

On current: DUSAC record the Kilkee sites as non-tidal, with the dive boats running in and out all day, so there is no slack window to plan around. Swell and wind are the limiting factors: Kilkee Sub Aqua Club describe Biraghty Mór as a sheltered dive on the leeward side, so which face works changes with the weather. The two published depth accounts differ — the dive centre publishes a free descent to 30 m onto the boulder field, DUSAC dived it at 20 to 25 m and said it goes deeper — so 30 m is the working maximum here and the rock is known to continue below that.

Best months: May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep

Dives & underwater footage