SeaLogIreland · wall · advanced
The Kilkee wall you dive as one long ascent: cracks and overhangs from 35-40 m with something to look at all the way up to 6 m.
Middle Rock is the inner of the two offshore rocks worked by boat out of Kilkee, on the exposed north side of the Shannon estuary mouth in west Clare. It is a very short run from the slip beside the dive centre, in the same cluster of named rocks and headlands as George's Head, Diamond Rocks, Illaunabaha, Biraghty Mor, Bishop's Island and Donegal Point. Dublin University Sub Aqua Club's Kilkee guide gives a maximum of 35 m and describes the approach from the north side, with a hole in the rock opposite if you are looking towards George's Head. Kilkee Sub Aqua Club, whose members dive it most, describe it as a site made for a gradual ascent from 40 m with continuous features up to 6 m, which is the most useful thing anyone says about it: you do not so much visit a depth here as work the wall from the bottom to the safety stop.
The rock face itself is steep and broken by cracks and overhangs. DUSAC's trip notes list wrasse, pollack, dogfish and dahlia anemones, and record pink sea fans, which they call a rare sight in Ireland. Marine records within 1.5 km of the pin fill that in with the ordinary cast of an Irish Atlantic wall: ballan and cuckoo wrasse, pollack, tompot blenny, leopard-spotted goby and long-spined sea scorpion, brown crab, lobster, velvet swimming crab and spiny squat lobster, edible urchins, spiny and seven-armed starfish, cotton-spinner sea cucumbers, elephant-hide and yellow staghorn sponges, light-bulb sea squirts, and nudibranchs including the sea lemon and the orange-clubbed sea slug. Moon, blue and compass jellyfish drift past in the warmer months. Burren Sub Aqua Club, the CFT club that dives this coast, put the Atlantic water here at 9 to 16 degrees, which is drysuit diving on any month of the year.
The practical constraint at Kilkee is swell rather than tide. DUSAC describe the local diving as close in, non-tidal and consistently good when the weather allows, and note that visibility is usually very clear. Their warning at the neighbouring Diamond Rocks, about waves surging over the rocks affecting the ascent, is the shape of the risk here: an exposed Atlantic rock with a wall that runs deep, and a surface that can be lively even when the dive itself is calm. The launch is a tidal slip outside the dive centre with a 2.1 m height restriction on the car park, and local advice is to launch and recover within three hours either side of low water on spring tides. There are no public moorings; private moorings are arranged through the local dive centre.
Boat, five to ten minutes from Kilkee. DUSAC describe launching from the tidal slip outside the dive centre, with a 2.1 m height restriction on the car park and local advice to launch and recover within three hours either side of low water on spring tides. There are no public moorings; private moorings go through the local dive centre. Oceanlife operates from the East Pier at Kilkee from May to September, and Kilkee Sub Aqua Club is a volunteer club with its own clubhouse and RIB.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
Kilkee's diving season is set by the weather and by who is operating. Oceanlife at the East Pier runs May to September, seven days a week; Kilkee Sub Aqua Club is most active from March to October and trains in a pool through the winter. DUSAC's own recorded Kilkee trips are June bank-holiday weekends.
Five to ten minutes by boat from Kilkee, on a coast DUSAC describe as non-tidal with visibility that is usually very clear when the weather permits. Water temperature on this coast runs 9 to 16 degrees. The variable is Atlantic swell, which decides whether the exposed sites go ahead at all.
On current: Depths disagree between the two club sources: Dublin University Sub Aqua Club record a 35 m maximum, while Kilkee Sub Aqua Club describe the site as one you ascend gradually from 40 m. Plan for the deeper figure. On tide, DUSAC are explicit that the Kilkee sites are non-tidal and five or ten minutes by boat, with no tidal effect on the dive itself; what governs whether you get in is Atlantic swell, and DUSAC's note on the neighbouring Diamond Rocks warns about waves surging over the rocks during the ascent.
Best months: May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep
The two club guides differ slightly. Dublin University Sub Aqua Club record a maximum of 35 m; Kilkee Sub Aqua Club describe the site as one made for a gradual ascent from 40 m, with something to see continuously up to 6 m. Plan for 40 m as the deepest realistic figure and treat the dive as a profile rather than a target depth.
By boat, five to ten minutes from Kilkee. DUSAC describe launching from the tidal slip outside the dive centre, with a 2.1 m height restriction on the car park and local advice to launch and recover within three hours either side of low water on spring tides. There are no public moorings, so private moorings are arranged through the local dive centre.
They are listed as separate sites. Kilkee Sub Aqua Club's dive-site list has Middle Rock and Outer Rock as two entries, and the two pins are about 140 m apart on the same group of rocks off Kilkee. Middle Rock is the one the club and university guides describe in detail; Outer Rock gets a single dismissive line.
Not as its full dive. The wall runs to 35-40 m, which is beyond recreational limits for a newly certified diver, and it is an exposed offshore rock reached by boat. The shallower half of the rock does hold interest up to 6 m, so a shallower version of the dive is possible with a guide who knows the site.
DUSAC record wrasse, pollack, dogfish and dahlia anemones, and pink sea fans, which they note are a rare sight in Ireland. Marine records around the site add ballan and cuckoo wrasse, tompot blenny, leopard-spotted goby, brown crab, lobster, velvet swimming crab, spiny squat lobster, edible urchins, spiny starfish, cotton-spinner sea cucumbers, elephant-hide and yellow staghorn sponges, light-bulb sea squirts and several nudibranchs.
Very little. DUSAC describe the Kilkee sites as non-tidal, close in and consistently good, with no tidal effect on the dives themselves. What decides whether you dive is Atlantic swell: their notes on the neighbouring Diamond Rocks warn about waves surging over the rocks affecting the ascent, and several Kilkee sites are flagged as conditions-dependent.
Broadly May to September. Oceanlife at the East Pier operates May to September seven days a week, and Kilkee Sub Aqua Club is most active from March to October, training in a pool over the winter. DUSAC's own Kilkee trips are June bank-holiday weekends. The season is set by Atlantic weather, not by water temperature, which stays between 9 and 16 degrees all year on this coast.
No. It is an offshore rock reached by boat, and everything described in the guides sits well below snorkelling depth. Kilkee's shore snorkelling is done inside the bay at the Pollock Holes, which DUSAC note require calm water and low tide.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Asterias rubens | occasional | 17 |
| Marthasterias glacialis | occasional | 13 |
| Patella pellucida | occasional | 13 |
| Echinus esculentus | occasional | 12 |
| Mytilus edulis | occasional | 10 |
| Holothuria forskali | occasional | 10 |
| Cancer pagurus | occasional | 9 |
| Patella vulgata | occasional | 9 |
| Pomatoschistus flavescens | occasional | 9 |
| Obelia geniculata | occasional | 8 |
| Steromphala cineraria | occasional | 8 |
| Steromphala umbilicalis | occasional | 8 |
| Luidia ciliaris | occasional | 7 |
| Dysidea fragilis | occasional | 7 |
| Pachymatisma johnstonia | occasional | 7 |
| Labrus bergylta | occasional | 6 |
| Aurelia aurita | occasional | 6 |
| Limacia clavigera | occasional | 6 |
| Calliostoma zizyphinum | occasional | 6 |
| Clavelina lepadiformis | occasional | 5 |
| Carcinus maenas | occasional | 5 |
| Pollachius pollachius | occasional | 5 |
| Taurulus bubalis | occasional | 5 |
| Cliona celata | occasional | 5 |
| Elysia viridis | occasional | 5 |
| Facelina auriculata | occasional | 5 |
| Botryllus schlosseri | rare | 4 |
| Galathea strigosa | rare | 4 |
| Parablennius gattorugine | rare | 4 |
| Cyanea lamarckii | rare | 4 |
| Chrysaora hysoscella | rare | 4 |
| Labrus mixtus | rare | 4 |
| Halichondria (Halichondria) panicea | rare | 4 |
| Diplosoma listerianum | rare | 3 |
| Homarus gammarus | rare | 3 |
| Necora puber | rare | 3 |
| Palaemon serratus | rare | 3 |
| Paracentrotus lividus | rare | 3 |
| Parablennius ruber | rare | 3 |
| Thorogobius ephippiatus | rare | 3 |
| Axinella dissimilis | rare | 3 |
| Archidoris pseudoargus | rare | 3 |
| Littorina littorea | rare | 3 |
| Littorina saxatilis | rare | 3 |
| Nucella lapillus | rare | 3 |
| Patella ulyssiponensis | rare | 3 |
| Trivia arctica | rare | 3 |
| Amphilectus fucorum | rare | 3 |
| Phorcus lineatus | rare | 3 |
| Aplidium punctum | rare | 2 |
| Ascidia mentula | rare | 2 |
| Scyliorhinus canicula | rare | 2 |
| Cetorhinus maximus | rare | 2 |
| Porcellana platycheles | rare | 2 |
| Pagurus bernhardus | rare | 2 |
| Maja squinado | rare | 2 |
| Velella velella | rare | 2 |
| Dynamena pumila | rare | 2 |
| Tubularia indivisa | rare | 2 |
| Idotea granulosa | rare | 2 |
The seaward rock of the Kilkee pair, listed by the local club as its own boat dive and summed up in four words: only for the curious.
Kilkee's shallow training reef off the Duggerna Rocks — a sand runway from 2 m, kelp on top, and about 10 m at the deepest.
A narrow rock canyon west of Kilkee worked at about 15 m, with kelp on the rim for the safety stop.
A gently sloping kelp-and-boulder bay on the far side of George's Head, and the Kilkee site that stays divable when the others do not.
A rock rising from 40 m to within 5 m of the surface, dived as a spiral from the bottom up.
A reef that dries out at low water, with a sunlit south face, a torch-only swim-through on the north side, and a long record of swell trouble.
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