SeaLogIreland · drift · intermediate
A tidal channel drift over stony bottom at 15-20 m, with a north wall to hide behind when the stream is running.
Gurraig Sound is the drift dive in Galway Dive Club's Annaghvaan group, in the island-and-channel country of south Connemara. The club's entry is four lines, and it is the only description of the site we could find: drop in at either end depending on the direction of the tide, drift the stony bottom at 15 to 20 metres at what they call a fair old rate, and keep in against the wall on the north side to get out of most of the current.
NPWS's synopsis for the surrounding Kilkieran Bay and Islands SAC explains why it moves. The coastline here is much-indented, and the bays and channels are subject to strong tidal streams as the sea funnels between islands and through channels. That makes this a one-way dive with a boat following, not something you swim back from, and it makes reading the tide the whole of the planning.
The bottom is stony rather than reef. The wider bay is unusually rich: NPWS rates Kilkieran Bay's marine species diversity as second only to the Kenmare River among Irish sites studied so far, and lists free-living maerl beds, Zostera marina, native oyster beds in inner Kilkieran Bay, and several anemones known from almost nowhere else in the country. The club works the sites of this group by boat from Picnic Island at the south-west corner of Inishtravin, an uninhabited island; Grey Rock, where they anchor in 4 to 5 m, is about 640 m west of this pin.
One naming trap worth flagging: Gurraig Sound in Connemara is not Gurrig Island in the Maharees off Co. Kerry, about 200 km south, which is a separate place with a confusingly similar name and its own set of dive sites.
Boat dive, entered at whichever end of the sound the tide direction favours, with the boat following. Galway Dive Club work the Annaghvaan group from Picnic Island at the south-west corner of Inishtravin, an uninhabited island, and use Grey Rock about 640 m west as an anchorage in 4 to 5 m. Annaghvaan is one of the south Connemara islands linked to the mainland and each other by bridges and causeways. No dive centre, no facilities.
You can reach the site independently.
The site lies in the waters of the Kilkieran Bay and Islands complex, designated as a Special Area of Conservation (site code 002111) under the EU Habitats Directive for Annex I habitats including reefs, large shallow inlets and bays, tidal flats and coastal lagoons, with harbour seal and harbour porpoise among the qualifying species. We found no permit requirement for recreational diving. NPWS lists free-living maerl beds, Zostera marina and native oyster beds in the bay - none of them things to anchor into or fin over.
No source we read gives months for this dive, so none are set. Being a sheltered inner channel rather than an exposed Atlantic reef, it is far less swell-gated than the Clare and Kerry sites in this catalogue - what decides the day here is the tide table and the water temperature, not a weather window.
Sheltered inner-Connemara water where tide, not swell, is the variable. The bottom in the sound is stony. NPWS records mixed kelp forests of Laminaria hyperborea and Laminaria saccharina forming a canopy in the very sheltered parts of the bay, and rocky shores ranging from wave-exposed to extremely sheltered and tide-swept. Water is cold year round; drysuits are the norm.
On current: This is the current site of the Annaghvaan group and the reason it exists as a named dive. Galway Dive Club dive it only as a drift, entering at whichever end suits the direction of the tide, and describe moving over the stony bottom at a fair old rate; the way to moderate that is to stay in against the north wall. NPWS describes the surrounding Kilkieran Bay channels as subject to strong tidal streams where the sea funnels between islands. No source gives a slack-water window or a spring rate, so treat the stream as unquantified and dive it with surface cover.
A tidal drift. Galway Dive Club drop in at either end of the sound depending on which way the tide is running and drift the stony bottom at 15 to 20 metres, moving at what they describe as a fair old rate. It is a one-way dive that needs a boat following, not something you swim back from.
The club give 15 to 20 metres over the stony channel bottom. That is the whole working range; this is not a wall dive and there is no deep option here. The site's character comes from the current rather than the depth, so gas planning matters less than tide planning.
Strong enough that the local club dive it only as a drift and advise keeping in against the north wall to avoid most of it. NPWS describe the Kilkieran Bay channels as subject to strong tidal streams as the sea funnels between islands. No published source gives a rate or a slack window, so treat it as unquantified and carry surface marker gear.
No, and the similar spelling causes real confusion. Gurraig Sound is in south Connemara, Co. Galway, in the Annaghvaan island group. Gurrig Island is one of the Maharees, off Castlegregory in Co. Kerry, roughly 200 km south, with its own separate set of named dive sites run by a dive centre there.
By small boat. Galway Dive Club base the Annaghvaan dives on Picnic Island at the south-west corner of Inishtravin, an uninhabited island, and use Grey Rock about 640 m west as an anchorage in 4 to 5 m of water. The islands themselves are reached by road across the south Connemara bridges and causeways.
No. The site is defined by a tidal stream the local club treat with enough respect to dive it only in one direction, with the boat following. There is no described shore entry, the interest is at 15 to 20 m, and a snorkeller would simply be carried through the channel.
We found no permit requirement for recreational diving here. The sound lies within the Kilkieran Bay and Islands SAC (site code 002111), designated for Annex I reefs, large shallow inlets and bays and other habitats. Keep off the maerl beds, seagrass and native oyster beds NPWS records in the bay, and do not anchor into them.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Amphilectus fucorum | occasional | 12 |
| Pachymatisma johnstonia | occasional | 11 |
| Microcosmus squamiger | occasional | 9 |
| Calliostoma zizyphinum | occasional | 9 |
| Phallusia ingeria | occasional | 9 |
| Aplidium punctum | occasional | 8 |
| Echinus esculentus | occasional | 8 |
| Raspailia (Raspailia) ramosa | occasional | 8 |
| Cliona celata | occasional | 8 |
| Labrus mixtus | occasional | 8 |
| Clavelina lepadiformis | occasional | 8 |
| Labrus bergylta | occasional | 7 |
| Ctenolabrus rupestris | occasional | 7 |
| Corella parallelogramma | occasional | 7 |
| Ascidia mentula | occasional | 7 |
| Polymastia boletiformis | occasional | 7 |
| Necora puber | occasional | 6 |
| Ciona intestinalis | occasional | 6 |
| Ascidia virginea | occasional | 6 |
| Nucula nucleus | occasional | 6 |
| Turritellinella tricarinata | occasional | 6 |
| Haliclona (Haliclona) simulans | occasional | 6 |
| Bittium reticulatum | occasional | 6 |
| Dysidea fragilis | occasional | 6 |
| Amphipholis squamata | occasional | 6 |
| Henricia oculata | occasional | 6 |
| Nemertesia antennina | occasional | 6 |
| Hemimycale columella | occasional | 5 |
| Tanaopsis graciloides | occasional | 5 |
| Archidoris pseudoargus | occasional | 5 |
| Ostrea edulis | occasional | 5 |
| Thyasira flexuosa | occasional | 5 |
| Kurtiella bidentata | occasional | 5 |
| Tritia incrassata | occasional | 5 |
| Steromphala cineraria | occasional | 5 |
| Metaphoxus simplex | occasional | 5 |
| Botryllus schlosseri | occasional | 5 |
| Bougainvillia muscus | occasional | 5 |
| Parablennius gattorugine | occasional | 5 |
| Aurelia aurita | occasional | 5 |
| Dercitus (Dercitus) bucklandi | rare | 4 |
| Protosuberites incrustans | rare | 4 |
| Mycale (Aegogropila) rotalis | rare | 4 |
| Polymastia mamillaris | rare | 4 |
| Stelligera stuposa | rare | 4 |
| Marthasterias glacialis | rare | 4 |
| Dendrodoa grossularia | rare | 4 |
| Metaphoxus fultoni | rare | 4 |
| Stelligera montagui | rare | 4 |
| Halisarca desqueyrouxae | rare | 4 |
| Raspailia (Clathriodendron) hispida | rare | 3 |
| Tethya aurantium | rare | 3 |
| Tethya citrina | rare | 3 |
| Leptosynapta inhaerens | rare | 3 |
| Ophiothrix fragilis | rare | 3 |
| Antennella secundaria | rare | 3 |
| Diplosoma spongiforme | rare | 3 |
| Ampelisca typica | rare | 3 |
| Thorogobius ephippiatus | rare | 3 |
| Hymeraphia stellifera | rare | 3 |
A hundred metres of vertical shore wall east of Grey Rock, dropping to 27-28 m in the Annaghvaan channels.
Tie the boat in five metres, swim a hundred metres south, and the bottom falls away almost vertically to 38 m — and deeper the further west you go.
Three reefs running north-south off a small Greatman's Bay quay, worked from the shore on the tide — the deep end of the Coral Strand shoreline.
The Coral Strand: a seven-metre shore dive over maërl gravel and eelgrass, the standard training and photography dive of the Carraroe peninsula.
A quiet beach entry on the Casla Bay side of Carraroe, dived at high water over rock, sand and a seagrass meadow.
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