Arran III, off Barmore Island, Loch Fyne
Type of Dive: Wreck dive from a boat or strenuous shore dive.
Experience suggested: Suitable for sports diver. Depths to 12m at stern.
Getting There: The Arran III lies off Sgeir Leathann at the NW corner of Barmore Island in Loch Fyne.
Usual RIB launching site is Tarbert. The wrecksite is approximately 1.7 naurical miles north of Tarbert. MV Little Blue will dive this site
Lat & Long: 55:53:524N; 005:24:279W
Tides: Reference Port is Greenock.
Flood is northerly, ebb is southerly.
Tidal speed is up to three quarters of a knot
1:200 000 Map:
1:25 000 Map:
1:25 000 Chart: The Arran III lies on the NW corner of Sgeir Leathann
The History: The Arran III was a steel puffer built in 1926 that took general cargoes along the Clyde. She ran aground on the NW tip of the Sgeir Leathann reef on 1st January 1932, while making way through a gale. Her cargo was empty beer bottles. The puffer was initially high and dry but then flooded through her hull and sank. All the crew were saved. Weight – 49 tonnes. Dimensions - 100’ by 21’ by 9’.
Underwater directions: The wreck lies where she sank on a sloping rocky/ kelp seabed on the NW corner of Sgeir Leathann. The stern, which is best preserved, lies in 12m. The bollards and aft lifeboat davits remain. The keel and some of the main ribs are present although are partly hidden by kelp. What remains of the bow is in 5m.
The wreck is usually buoyed by the owner of MV Little Blue.
This description of shore diving the Arran III was on Scottish Divers Forum by ‘cloggiebastard’
‘It’s quite a trek with your kit and access to the waterside is difficult. We hacked a path through the undergrowth to the waterside so if you walk round the island to where its opposite Sgeir Leathan(the wee island offshore) you should clearly see a path down to the waters edge although its quite slippy and there are a few holes to watch out for!!!
The dive itself is quite good although there’s not much left of the wreck itself-mainly plates and a few ribs. If you root among the wreckage you can find conger, crabs and the odd lobster or two.
Enter the water at the bottom of the path we made and drop into 5m of water. Swim straight across underwater to the island and on hitting the wall at 6m turn left. .Follow this wall and after 50m it peters out but just behind it you'll see another wall starting which is forming a gulley. With this on your right continue down the steepening slope and follow it slightly round to your right and you should see the wreck on your right hand side. Max depth is about 17m depending on the tide. You could always surface swim to the orange buoy above the wreck at the tip of the island but this leads me to a word of warning. Firstly I don’t surface swim it as there can sometimes be a bit of current both on flood and ebb-noticeably worse on springs-which doesn’t seem as bad below the water at 6m. Secondly don't dive it anything more than a moderate south westerly as it’s quite exposed and it can get pretty rough with the wind blasting up the Kilbrannan Sound into the loch.
Lastly always pop in to the hotel and ask for permission to dive and watch your car on the tracks on the way down from the hotel to the island - there are many hidden perils!!
Other than that it’s quite a good dive with plenty of marine life to see.’
Divesite map/sketch: See the underwater sketch for Arran III in ‘Clyde Shipwrecks’ by Moir & Crawford.
Links:
http://www.fyne-diving.co.uk/pages/about.html
http://www.divernet.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?id=5214§ion=1021&action=display&show=
http://www.pentland-sac.ukdiver.com/psac_Lochfyne.htm
Thanks to: Cloggiebastard/Nederlander for proofreading
Version: 1.0
Created by: alex maclennan
Date: March 2007