Lizard Peninsula

The Old Lifeboat Slipway in the Lizard Peninsula, on the southernmost tip of the United Kingdom.

Rugged, desolate, wild, untouched, old, traditional, quiet and beautiful. These are the words often associated with the Lizard Peninsula.

The southernmost part of the United Kingdom, where you can find small pockets of civilisation living the quiet life away from the hussle and bussle from the more touristy destinations. This isn’t to say that the Lizard isn’t visited by tourists at all, as the area still attracts campers and walkers from all over with the lure to visit Lizard Point lighthouse and stand on the southernmost tip of the UK.

There are very nice sandy beaches where you can catch some surf and get a tan or places where you can watch grey seals and ocean going birds from the steep cliffs surrounding the Lizard.

But you’re most like reading this because you want to go diving or snorkeling, and yes there are definitely places for that as well!

Please be aware the information below can be used to assist you for researching dive or snorkel sites, but we cannot be held liable for any accidents/incidents should you choose not to use us as your guide.

Our Guided Dive Sites

Porthoustock

The left side of Porthoustock beach with the disused Oar house in the background. This is our most visited dive site and training site in all of Cornwall.

This is our most visited dive site in all of Cornwall as it has almost everything to offer and best of all, its quiet!

Porthoustock sits on the South East coast of Cornwall just off the Mannacles Marine Reserve. It has a shingle beach meaning that we have less kit to clean after a long day of diving. The carpark is right on the beach with an honesty box upon entry that helps pay the local community to keep the area clean. The entry and exit is just a gentle short walk down and up the beach and the area is very well sheltered from most wind directions. The water does get deep very quickly and it’s only a few strides until your feet are off the bottom completely.

In the peak summer months, there is a small horse box cafe owned by one of the locals where you can grab a egg & bacon bap and a coffee between dives. To the left side of the beach is a large disused concrete building that was once used for storing grain and loading onto old merchant ships. On the right side of the beach is a large harbour wall and quarry, which is still active. Sometimes a container ship may pull up, where slate from the quarry is loaded onto and shipped off to parts of Asia.

The left hand side is the best side for diving and is also where we do the majority of our training, as the platform that supports the Oar house shelters us from the elements and the end of it sits in 3 metres of water counting as a confined water site.

Beyond the Oarhouse is a large reef, home to an enormous amount of fish life. Swim through and down the reef and eventually you’ll reach the sand at the bottom which sits at a depth of 10 metres of so. Here you may come across large cuttlefish, octopus and massive spidercrabs. With the reef on your left and the sand on your right, follow the reef line until you reach about 130 bar before turning round to head back to the exit. You might want to explore the reef more as you’ll find all sorts of fascinating marine life in there from sea cucumbers, lobsters, nudibranchs, conger eels, catsharks, dover soles, topknots and much much more.

Be warned though, as Porthoustock is still used for traditional fishing practices and you may come across lobster and crab pots filled the brim with their targeted catches. There is normally a rope line between each one floating mid water, so be mindful of not getting caught or tangled up. Although, as it’s only a single line of rope, which is easy enough to avoid by the sensible diver.

Back up through the reef and you’ll end up on the shingle beach near or next to the Oar house if you’re compass navigation is good enough. Here you can do your safety stops, or when your dive computer tells you to before swimming back up the beach and exit.

A common octopus during one of our dives at Porthoustock beach became quite a hit on social media. It was as large as a dustbin lid and if you look carefully, you can see that it had been through the wars as two of its arms were missing!

A European Lobster (Hommarus gammarus) inside on of the lobster pots at Porthoustock. The site is still used as a traditional lobster and crab fishery, so be aware of any ropes between pots or small boats overhead.

Mullion Cove

Mullion has probably the best visibility in Cornwall with upto 20 metres of more!

When anyone asks what is your favourite dive site, it’s this one - hands down, Mullion is our favourite!

Mullion Cove is a small historic harbour owned by the National Trust. Parking during the summer months is first come first serve and you will have to drop your kit at the bottom and drive back up to the carpark, which is owned by the small cafe at the harbour entrance.

Entry is through the harbour itself and the slope down is can be a little slippery, but fine once you get to the shingle/sand. There is a small stream that runs into the harbour so expect a thermocline and poor visibility, but with if you surface swim out around the harbour wall to your right, the visibility will clear. And this is why Mullion becomes our favourite. Mullion due to its location, has the best visibility in Cornwall and during the spring, we can have upto 20 metres visibility, when the rest of Cornwall has 7 or 10 metres at best.

There are big swim throughs that you can dive between, which will lead you down to the sand, which sits at 20 metres depth on the highest of tides. There is a large kelp forest that lines the sand where you will find large catsharks, octopus, lobsters, spidercrabs and if you’re lucky; Grey Triggerfish! Yes, we have a species of triggerfish that live in the UK and Mullion is one of the places you might find them as there is a breeding site nearby.

If you were to head left instead of right, there is a large sand bank where you might come across rays and flatfish species but it does get quite shallow.

Mullion is also home to some unusual species such as Elephant Sponges, which as the name suggests, they look like the heads of elephants stuck on the side of boulders.

Be aware though that if the wind has been blowing from a Westerly direction, Mullion can get dangerously swelly, as the sea is blown against the sandbank and circles round into the harbour entrance creating a whirlpool affect.

If you’re interested in diving Mullion and would like a guide, contact us as this site is literally only 20 mins drive away.

Mullion Cove is home to some very unusual marine life such as this Elephant Sponge, which is the name suggests: looks like the face of an elephant stuck on the side of a boulder!

Porthkerris

Okay, okay… I think I need to be a little bit honest here. Porthkerris isn’t actually ‘OUR’ dive site, as this is a privately owned beach and a working farm. This is owned by our friends; Porthkerris Divers whom you may have heard of being one of the top 5 dive locations in the UK.

Before entering the water there is a parking fee and a shore diving fee, paid to the owners of Porthkerris which operates 6 months of the year. But don’t let the fee’s put you off as there is very VERY good reason why Porthkerris has quite comfortably been rated one of the top 5 dive sites in the UK for several years now…

You will not find a bigger abundance or marine life anywhere else in Cornwall HANDS DOWN! There are loads of stuff here from octopus, sharks, monkfish, stargazers, nudibranchs, seals, dolphins passing through - think Porthoustock but a little bit more!

During the summer months, there is an onsite cafe and a cylinder fill station, a small shop and toilets. They also have two hardboats if you wanted to get deeper dives in on the Mannacles.

So now I’ve practically sold Porthkerris, you’re probably wondering what we get out of it? Well, we have a very good working relationship with Porthkerris (we even own the same breed of rare dog which is the Curly Coated Retriever but that’s a story for another time..) and as such, we are still allowed to use Porthkerris as a dive site during the winter months. This means we practically have the entire site to ourselves and we still get to see the majority of marine life if not more, because they aren’t being disturbed by the hundreds of other divers that visit during the summer months!

We love Porthkerris and if you would like us to guide you around out of peak season, Porthkerris are fine with us leading you.

Emily and her father’s mind were blown away at sheer amount of marine life found at Porthkerris. During our safety stop, we were luckily enough to witness Seabass taking turns to torpedo a large shoal of sprat.