Dorothea Quarry

[Lizardland]

After last week's report on Hodge Close I thought I'd do one on Dorothea which I dived yesterday. For those that haven't heard of it, it is a big flooded quarry in North Wales. Quite seriously big. I've stitched 3 pics together to give a bit of an idea of just how big Dorry is:
http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/lizardland/Dorothea_100607/SL010301.jpg
That's just about half of the quarry and there are another two quarries in the complex (one is even bigger). And it's deep, about 98m at the deepest or 104m if you enter an old tunnel on the bottom.

The main car park is enough for maybe 40 cars. Access depends on the weather, in the wet the roads get badly rutted and a normal car will bottom out. The parking is at the top of the quarry, the water is at the bottom of a very steep ramp:

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/lizardland/Dorothea_100607/HPIM0303.jpg

At the bottom of the ramp is a concrete platform where you can enter the water:

http://i113.photobucket.com/albums/n233/lizardland/Dorothea_100607/HL020304.jpg

Here it drops to a flat area at 6m. To the right it drops to IIRC about 20m(ish) along shear walls (bit like Calve Island), to the left is a big sandy bowl, around 30m. Straight out drops to about 15m where there are various bits of tat, including a Merc Vito van and a crane. Just beyond this is a wall which drops straight down to around 40-50m. One of the more popular dives is to swim striaght out to a set of oil drums and drop down the shot to a 40m plateau. There are old huts from the workings which can be explored, a gnome garden and lots of old cables & pipes. You can follow a slate ridge up on a nice multi-level dive back to shore.

Yesterday, I went to the plateau but dropped instead over the edge. I've done this wall loads of times, it drops to about 85m straight down, crystal clear vis, blue water all around. From there is a boulder slope to 95m. Yesterday I stuck to the wall face, levelling out at 60m. I'd bought a 10W DiveRite HID for the SOM trip a few weeks ago but it wasn't needed so this has been my first real test. There isn't much ambient light at that depth and it produced a very white, tight beam. If anything a bit too tight but it still lit up the dark nicely, vis about 12m. I stayed at about 60m, did a few flushes on my RB because the ppO2 was a bit high. I ended up switching the O2 off and running it manually.

If you follow the 60m line for a few minutes you reach an A shaped hole in the rock. This is a tunnel which runs from one side of the plateau to the other, about 15-20m long. I swam through it to really test out the torch and although the beam is narrow it gives a nice light in complete darkness.

I turned around as I was feeling very narked which surprised me as I was on 18/45 trimix so should've had a clear head. It makes me think my mix was cocked up so I'm taking it to be analysed tomorrow, it would explain the high ppO2 as well. Exited the tunnel, followed an old ladder up to the plateau again. Working in the quarry must have been horrible because this ladder is a rickety old wooden things, very exposed with no safety rails or hoops and a shear drop of about 50m on to boulders. Back at the plateau I had a mooch around then found the shotline and headed up. About 40min of deco passed uneventfully apart from my pee valve johnny coming off (don't buy them off e-bay, they're crap). One of the nice things is that there is a trapeze rigged with bars at 9m and 6m. There is a massive thermocline at 6m, changing from 6deg to about 15deg which makes the last stop nice. Then a very long swim to the surface with a growing wet patch. All in all a good day out, apart from the traffic home and the fact that I stunk of piss.

Dorothea has an undeservedly bad reputation. It's not dangerous, it's the people that dive it. I've seen time and again single cylinder divers with no pony, on air, doing the tunnel dive. Too many people either dive without the right skill or as a trophy dive. I've been diving there for ten years and I love it, I still haven't seen all of it. Underwater it's beautiful, stark, vertical walls dropping into the blue. On the surface it's full of ruins slowly being reclaimed by nature. A very striking place.

If you get the chance to dive it then do it.

Cheers,

Stuart

[Gazza]

If anything a bit too tight but it still lit up the dark nicely, vis about 12m. I stayed at about 60m, did a few flushes on my RB because the ppO2 was a bit high. I ended up switching the O2 off and running it manually.


Dorothea has an undeservedly bad reputation. It's not dangerous, it's the people that dive it. I've seen time and again single cylinder divers with no pony, on air, doing the tunnel dive. Too many people either dive without the right skill or as a trophy dive. I've been diving there for ten years and I love it, I still haven't seen all of it. Underwater it's beautiful, stark, vertical walls dropping into the blue. On the surface it's full of ruins slowly being reclaimed by nature. A very striking place.

If you get the chance to dive it then do it.

Cheers,

Stuart

Nice report. I did Dotty in Jan 2006 and had fantastic viz. You could see the White van from the surface. Ie about 13 metres to the top of it. I reckon I had 20 + metres viz. It was fantastic. Went back in March 2006 with the club and couldnt get much over 2 metres on the surface. (Was much better at depth)

It didnt help matters when I said "but it was fantastic last month etc"

Nice place when the viz is good but hard slog with teh kit up the hill.

Gary

[Lizardland]

To give it a bit more perspective, here is a map of the site:

http://www.kierman.co.uk/data/gallery/DorotheaUnderwaterMap/images/dorothea%20map.jpg

And an aerial shot of when the quarry was still working:

http://www.subaqua.co.uk/dive-sites/inland/dorothea1.jpg

The picture was taken (I think) looking from the west, the right hand side of the map above. It gives an idea of the scale, the roads are proper width roads and are still there underwater so you can guess just how big the place is. And from the photo you can see just how deep too.

This one shows some of the ladders that are still on the deep drop-offs:

http://www.markwells.co.uk/diving/dorothea03.jpg

Cheers,

Stuart

[alexmaclennan]

Hi Stuart,

A busy day for you too at the office? Good write up and pics.

Will you be diving in Rubislaw Quarry after the autumn?

alex

[Lizardland]

Hi Alex,

yes, slow indeed :D

Do people dive Rubislaw? Wasn't it the biggest manmade hole in Europe or something like that? It must be quite deep.

I'm not a huge fan of diving quarries generally, I think they're a bit dull, however Dorothea is a good dive in it's own right, there is a lot to see if you like industrial heritage and the walls really are spectacular dives in good vis if you like scenic stuff. Even on the surface you can spend a few hours mooching round the site, the old workings are fascinating. I've even abseiled into one of the old shafts to have a root around the pump gear. There are a lot of old buildings too (some of them are listed), some quite big structures, all done in drystone walling. Must've taken years. When you look up and see the piles of spoil on the hillside being held up by drystone retaining walls it really makes you think...

I'm planning on trying to see once and for all what the bottom of Easdale Quarry is like and what depth it sits at in July so I wanted to make sure everything is OK on the RB in the deep before I go. Dorry is a good place for doing stuff like that as you can get very deep very quick.

Cheers,

Stuart

[stew]

great blog Stu.
thats a place i would like to dive.

[regthing]

Easdale Quarry

As in Easdale island?

I was wondering about that last week if it was any good for diving (thought it probably would be)

I love that island, I know it from my Sea Kayaking days. I took part in the World Stone Skimming Champoinships there a few years back :D

The is also an island to the south west, just north of Lunga called Belnahua. This used to be a slate mining island until it was flooded. There are still ruined houses and old machinery on the island. The main quarry there looks like it could be a good dive. It has been a while since I've been, I'm not even sure there is access to the waters edge. I'll need to dig out the photos.


http://getamap.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/output1/gam/gam_ordsvywat-sun-17127917395670.png http://getamap.ordnancesurvey.co.uk/output1/gam/gam_ordsvywat-sun-17127906395580.png

You just need to watch the current around the island when your trying to land.

It's a popular lunchtime stop for Kayakers. We camped overnight on it once and managed to burn every bit of driftwood on the island :D