About 8km along the Goat’s Path from the West Lodge Hotel is the small harbour of Gerahies with a good slip usable after half tide, giving access to the coastline to the west where there are some interesting gullies just beyond the pier. It is also possible to shore dive by entering the water a little east of the pier across a rocky reef.

Seven kilometres beyond Glengarriff take a left turn marked “Zetland Pier” and follow the road down to the shore for 2km until you arrive at a charming open spot with a simple pier. While there is no slipway, it is possible to manhandle an inflatable into the water without much problem, while RIBs would have to be launched in Glengarriff (8km) or across the bay at Gerahies (5km). The area around the pier is suitable for snorkelling while the attraction for divers is Sheelane Island about 800m offshore.
At the western end of the island is a small outlying rock with a splendid open cave to explore. Beyond which the rocky bottom is covered with brittle and feather stars as it runs down into deeper water and life begins to peter out at around 30m.

Continuing west past the large campsite there is a left turn signposted for Bere Island Ferry, which brings you after 800m to a pleasant little harbour with a good slipway. About halfway across the bay towards Bere Island lies the wreck of the factory ship “Bardini Reefer” which sank about 10 years ago in 15m of water after catching fire while at anchor. Finding it is no problem as the masts are still showing above water! .
The wreck is almost complete and it is possible to poke your nose into some of the openings. Due to the gentle currents that bathe the wreck there is loads of growth on the superstructure. Given the shallow depth it is best to plan you dive for high water, when you can spend as long as you like exploring without going below 10m. Bere Haven can be dived when it is far too rough to dive in the open bay, however to appreciate it at its best, a day with good visibility is needed.

Head west out of Castletownbere on the L61, passing a junction to the right to Allihies after 10km. About 1km further a national school is passed on the right. Take the next left turn and then quickly right onto a narrow lane and Black Ball Harbour is reached after 1km. It is possible to launch medium sized boats across the rocky beach about 100m before the pier.
Heading out of the harbour and turning left, after 300m, brings you to the dark imposing cliffs of Black Ball Head. Here the cliffs rise 60m above the sea and plunge 45m underwater with hardly a pause. Finding a bottom to anchor in is quite a problem! The underwater scenery is marvellous with massive walls of rock carpeted with life running down to a sea floor of massive boulders. Enter the water very close to the cliffs in order to find ‘shallow’ water. This is obviously only suitable in calm conditions and slack water.

After about 6km from Garnish Pier by boat, passing through Dursey Sound, you reach the long headland of Crow Head sticking out into Bantry Bay. There is a rock just awash just offshore and the whole area is an amazing jumble of massive rocks and boulders, some over 30m high in an area that is generally 40–45m deep. Great care is needed to avoid too much ascending and descending, but when the visibility is very good this is the nearest you will get to “flying”. Obviously slack water is essential.

A further 8km along the Goat’s Path there is a turn off to the right down to the water at Collack Pier. The access road is a little rough, but it should be possible to launch a medium sized boat here. There is no shelter from westerly winds, but on a calm day shore diving around the pier can be rewarding.
It is 16km on the T65 from Bantry to the picturesque village of Glengarriff, where the road splits and the L61 heads off towards Castletownbere along the northern shores of Bantry Bay.

About 16km beyond Glengarriff lies the straggling village of Adrigole dominated by Hungry Hill beyond. Five kilometres beyond the centre of the village (that part by
the shore) take a left turn down to Bank Harbour which has a small pier suitable for inflatables. This is the best location for departures to the rocks and reefs to the east of Bere Island. There is a wreck of a Spanish trawler here, but it is completely dry on the rocks!

This 30m long fishing boat struck the rocks just west of the entrance to Castletownbere and sank in 30m. It is still substantially intact and lying on its side. There are two slips at Castletownbere Harbour. The one at the far end of the pier complex is less public and more
suitable for a group of divers and all their gear.
Directions: The wreck lies at the narrowest part of the western entrance to the harbour about 3.5km from the pier, exactly on the leading lights, which can be spotted in daylight by the fluorescent orange backing plates. Continue out to sea along this line until Sheep’s Head appears across the bay from behind the cliffs of Bere Island. About 100m further and a house will appear between the rocks on the mainland and this is the second transit for the wreck. It is easily picked out with an echo-sounder.
Watch out for heavy trawler traffic that comes through the nar row channel , avoid Sunday
afternoons when they all put to sea after the weekend!. Be sure to have your A-flag flying and your divers have SMBs and be on the constant lockout. It is possible to launch a smaller boat at Dunboy Castle and thus halve the journey to the wreck (head west out of the town on the L61 and turn left at the signpost after 1.5 km).

Continuing along the B61 westwards, the scenery gets wilder and wilder, but after driving through a narrow pass a valley opens up on the right with a road heading down at a junction signposted “Garnish Pier” (continue straight on here and after 2km you will reach the end of the road and the unique cable car connecting with Dursey Island).
Arriving at the pier there is lots of space with a good pier and slipway usable except at low water. There is even a nice sandy beach for relaxing on! The bay is quite sheltered and if it is too rough to dive ‘outside’ then interesting (and quite deep) diving can be had in the vicinity of the rocks, with a bollard on them, out to the right.
There are the remains of an old coal boat here. However when the conditions are right, the long journey to this remote spot is rewarded with superb diving around to the left beyond Garnish Point. If the tide is high it is possible to pass directly from the pier to the open sea, otherwise you must motor 1km around the islands. The whole area between the point and the entrance to Dursey Sound offers excellent diving with rock faces tumbling down to 40m and beyond. It is a very high energy site and thus rarely calm, however this also means the rocks are ablaze with life to 35m. This whole area offers a multitude of other top class dive sites suitable for the advanced diver when conditions are very calm.

For a major expedition off shore for a group with the right boats and personnel, look no further than Bull Rock, 5km beyond the end of Dursey Island and some 15km from Garnish Pier. This very impressive rock rises almost vertically from the sea on all sides to a height of 80m and is topped by a lighthouse. There is a large archway right through the middle of the rock, through
which it is possible to take a dive boat, but watch out for the thousands of sea birds that nest on the cliffs! Although it is probably possible to dive in a tidal shadow, it makes sense to plan a dive here for slack water to reduce risks.
Excellent deep diving is assured here wherever you enter the water with the life running on well beyond safe diving depths. The helicopter landing pad, 60m above sealevel, was washed away by a wave during a storm some years ago, needless to say it needs to be exceptionally calm to dive here. There are two other offshore rocks nearby, the Cow and the Calf, equally impressive.