Lochaline is the main village in the Morvern area of Highland, Scotland, The coastal village is situated at the mouth of Loch Aline, on the northern shore of the Sound of Mull. A ferry operates regularly over to Fishnish on the Isle of Mull.
Lochaline has to many people some of the best diving around Scotland, with sites including, Hispania, Rondo, Meldon, Thesis and the Shauna to name a few, of which on this expedition we would hopefully visit them all.
Diving off a Charter boat made for a lovely week, the skippers had great knowledge of the sites, and with a compressor and diving lifts on board... what more could you ask for. Well a nice steaming brew and biscuits in between dives, expertly made by our wonderful club president Mr T.
Accommodation
Booked into the Highland Base camp for the week, which sites just up on the hill from the Jetty which our chauffeur arrived each day to take us to the dive sites.
Each room comprised of bunk beds and ensuite wet rooms. With under floor heating made the rooms very cozy. However with very little rain and fairly good air temperatures, no need for the extra boost of heat from below.
With the accommodation sleeping 24 people, the kitchen and dinning room were very well equipped with plenty of cooking and storage place for supplies to feed the clan.
The local village shop was a 30 second walk from the Base camp, holding a fairly good selection of fruit, veg and ingredients. A nice selection of meats, however next time suggest stopping at a supermarket on the mainland to pick up extra meat supplies. its only a village shop so not really cater for large groups. However they did happily let us put an extra meat order in when they did their supply run.
Something you don't get to do everyday or have the pleasure of seeing up close, while having our rest between dives was feeding a Sea Eagle. A little bit of unplanned fishing while resting was a delight. Caught enough Mackerel to take back and cook a beautiful simple started for the group that evening. Even catching a couple of good sized Pollock, which found their way into the powerful talons of an Eagle.
In conclusion, Lochaline is an absolute stunning place to dive, is it worth the travel up? absolutely. Will we return? most definitely.
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