SeaLogIreland · wreck · beginner
A broken-up Victorian liner scattered in 5-20 m against the western cliffs of the Old Head of Kinsale, with swim-throughs in the wreckage and golf balls in the sand.
The site is the wreck of the SS City of Chicago, an Inman Line steamer running from New York to Liverpool by way of Queenstown, now Cobh. In heavy fog in June 1892 she was further north than her captain believed and ran onto the rocks at Ringagurteen Point, on the western side of the Old Head of Kinsale. Nobody was killed; everyone aboard climbed the cliff face to safety. The ship stayed where she struck and broke up in place, which is why the dive is a debris field against the cliff rather than a hull.
What is left lies close inshore at the mouth of a small cave. OceanAddicts, the Kinsale operator that runs the trip, describe her as well broken up with a number of clean swim-throughs in the wreckage, everything now covered in growth, over a depth range of 5 to 20 m and suitable for divers of any experience level. The Irish Underwater Council's own south Cork dive-site notes are shorter and shallower, calling it a very safe wreck at 12 m on the west side of the Old Head with plenty of wreckage lying about. Since the Old Head Golf Links runs along the clifftop above, the sand between the plates is also full of golf balls.
Because the wreck dates from 1892 it is more than a hundred years old, which puts it under automatic statutory protection in Irish waters. The Irish Underwater Council's entry for this site says plainly that you should make sure you have a permit if you intend to dive it, and the National Monuments Service requires a Dive Licence under section 3(5) of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1987 for dives and surveys at protected wrecks. Nothing may be taken off the site.
Marine records within a few kilometres of the wreck give a good picture of what grows and swims on this stretch of the Old Head: ballan, goldsinny and cuckoo wrasse, rock cook, pollack, conger, tompot blenny, leopard-spotted goby and common dragonet, with lobster, brown crab, spider crab, velvet swimming crab and spiny squat lobster in the rock, oaten pipes hydroids and sea-beard hydroids on exposed edges, and the boring sponge Cliona celata on the harder ground. Basking sharks, harbour porpoise, common dolphin and, less often, minke, fin and humpback whales are all recorded off the headland. OceanAddicts note that basking sharks, barrel jellyfish and sunfish move along the Cork coast in spring and summer.
Boat, a short run west and south from Kinsale harbour. The wreck is on the western side of the Old Head of Kinsale at Ringagurteen Point, lying close in at the entrance to a small cave. OceanAddicts operate daily boat dives from Fisherman's Pontoon at Old Fort, Kinsale.
Access to the site runs through a local operator.
A Dive Licence from the National Monuments Service is required for dives and surveys at protected wrecks under section 3(5) of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1987. The Irish Underwater Council's own entry for this site tells divers to make sure they have a permit because the wreck dates from 1892.
The City of Chicago went ashore in 1892, so the wreck is over a hundred years old and automatically protected: the National Monuments Service enforces statutory protection for all wrecks over one hundred years old and for underwater archaeological objects of any age in Irish waters, and records them in the Wreck Inventory of Ireland Database. Nothing may be removed from the site.
No source read here gives a closed season. OceanAddicts note that basking sharks, barrel jellyfish and sunfish migrate along the Cork coast in spring and summer, and run boat dives twice a day through the season; the practical constraint on a cliff-foot site facing the open Atlantic is swell.
A short boat run from Kinsale to the western face of the Old Head. The dive is worked along the shore and into the mouth of a small cave, in 5-20 m. Neither of the sources read here publishes a visibility figure or a tidal window for this particular site.
On current: The two sources disagree on depth. OceanAddicts, who dive it, give a range of 5 to 20 m; the Irish Underwater Council's south Cork notes describe it as a 12 m wreck. Take 20 m as the planning maximum and expect most of the wreckage to be shallower. Neither source reports current on this site, in contrast to their notes on nearby Bream Rock and the Ling Rocks, which both carry strong tidal streams and are dived at slack.
OceanAddicts, who run the trip, give a depth range of 5 to 20 m across the debris field. The Irish Underwater Council's south Cork notes are more conservative and describe it as a 12 m wreck. Plan for 20 m and expect most of the wreckage to be shallower than that.
It is the SS City of Chicago, an Inman Line steamer sailing from New York to Liverpool via Queenstown, now Cobh. In heavy fog in June 1892 she ran onto the rocks at Ringagurteen Point on the western side of the Old Head of Kinsale. There was no loss of life; everyone aboard got up the cliff face to safety, and the ship broke up where she struck.
Yes. The wreck dates from 1892, which makes it more than a hundred years old and automatically protected under Ireland's National Monuments Acts. The Irish Underwater Council's own entry for the site tells divers to make sure they have a permit, and the National Monuments Service issues a Dive Licence under section 3(5) of the National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1987. Nothing may be taken off the wreck.
Yes, on the right day. OceanAddicts describe it as suitable for divers of all experience levels and the Irish Underwater Council calls it a very safe wreck. The caveat is exposure rather than depth: it sits close inshore under the western cliffs of the Old Head, so a swell will make it uncomfortable, and the swim-throughs put you briefly under an overhead.
Not usefully. The shallowest wreckage starts at around 5 m, it is reached by boat rather than from shore, and the site is on the exposed Atlantic face of the Old Head. A snorkeller would be sitting in surge over a wreck they could barely make out.
The broken plating of the liner, with a number of swim-throughs and the mouth of a small cave, all of it covered in growth. Marine records from this stretch of the Old Head include ballan, goldsinny and cuckoo wrasse, rock cook, pollack, conger, tompot blenny and leopard-spotted goby, plus lobster, brown crab, spider crab and velvet swimming crab in the rock. Basking sharks, harbour porpoise and common dolphin are all recorded off the headland.
The sources that describe this site do not report a tidal problem, which is worth noting because the same Irish Underwater Council guide explicitly warns about strong tidal streams on the nearby Bream Rock and Ling Rocks and says both must be dived at slack. On the Chicago the limiting factor is Atlantic swell breaking against the cliff.
By boat from Kinsale. It is a short run out of the harbour and around to the western side of the Old Head of Kinsale, at Ringagurteen Point. OceanAddicts run daily boat dives from Fisherman's Pontoon at Old Fort in Kinsale, with morning and afternoon departures.
| Species | How often | Records |
|---|---|---|
| Dipturus intermedius | common | 2677 |
| Echinus esculentus | occasional | 28 |
| Phocoena phocoena | occasional | 28 |
| Marthasterias glacialis | occasional | 25 |
| Cliona celata | occasional | 24 |
| Cancer pagurus | occasional | 22 |
| Necora puber | occasional | 21 |
| Pollachius pollachius | occasional | 21 |
| Cetorhinus maximus | occasional | 20 |
| Asterias rubens | occasional | 20 |
| Luidia ciliaris | occasional | 20 |
| Calliostoma zizyphinum | occasional | 20 |
| Ctenolabrus rupestris | occasional | 19 |
| Labrus bergylta | occasional | 19 |
| Balaenoptera physalus | occasional | 18 |
| Obelia geniculata | occasional | 17 |
| Scyliorhinus canicula | occasional | 16 |
| Palaemon serratus | occasional | 15 |
| Taurulus bubalis | occasional | 15 |
| Hemimycale columella | occasional | 15 |
| Delphinus delphis | occasional | 15 |
| Steromphala cineraria | occasional | 15 |
| Maja squinado | occasional | 14 |
| Balaenoptera acutorostrata | occasional | 14 |
| Galathea strigosa | occasional | 13 |
| Homarus gammarus | occasional | 13 |
| Thorogobius ephippiatus | occasional | 13 |
| Nemertesia antennina | occasional | 12 |
| Conger conger | occasional | 11 |
| Aslia lefevrei | occasional | 10 |
| Pawsonia saxicola | occasional | 10 |
| Parablennius gattorugine | occasional | 10 |
| Pomatoschistus flavescens | occasional | 10 |
| Nemertesia ramosa | occasional | 9 |
| Tubularia indivisa | occasional | 9 |
| Trisopterus minutus | occasional | 9 |
| Centrolabrus exoletus | occasional | 9 |
| Clavelina lepadiformis | occasional | 8 |
| Callionymus lyra | occasional | 8 |
| Labrus mixtus | occasional | 8 |
| Haliclona (Rhizoniera) viscosa | occasional | 8 |
| Pagurus bernhardus | occasional | 7 |
| Abietinaria abietina | occasional | 7 |
| Aurelia aurita | occasional | 7 |
| Megaptera novaeangliae | occasional | 7 |
| Amphilectus fucorum | occasional | 7 |
| Halecium halecinum | occasional | 7 |
| Sertularia argentea | occasional | 6 |
| Zeugopterus punctatus | occasional | 6 |
| Pachymatisma johnstonia | occasional | 6 |
| Cadlina laevis | occasional | 6 |
| Patella pellucida | occasional | 6 |
| Aglaophenia tubulifera | occasional | 5 |
| Dysidea fragilis | occasional | 5 |
| Trivia arctica | occasional | 5 |
| Ampelisca brevicornis | rare | 4 |
| Pycnoclavella aurilucens | rare | 4 |
| Ascidiella aspersa | rare | 4 |
| Schizotricha frutescens | rare | 4 |
| Ophiothrix fragilis | rare | 4 |
The training dive at the mouth of Kinsale harbour: a small island 200 m off the slip, with rock gullies running south-east to about 15 m.
A shallow, sheltered seagrass bay near Kinsale where Cork divers do their first open-water dives.
A First World War German minelaying submarine lying on her port side in the approaches to Cork Harbour, with her crew and some of her mines still aboard.
A 1900 bucket dredger off Power Head whose hull is gone but whose machinery — chain, sprocket, 2.5 m drive gears, engine, boiler — can still be read on the seabed.
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