Inishbofin, Co Galway
Inishbofin has been a favourite location for many of us over the past 30 years and Caroline Brady organised this trip for us. Because of the improved pier and ferry access to the island, it is less of an ordeal as it was in the early days hauling and dragging compressors and dive gear on and off a trawler. We have always enjoyed the welcome, food and craic at the family run Murray’s ‘Doonmore Hotel’, which celebrated its 40th Anniversary in 2009.
The beauty of the island is that we can always get a dive in regardless of the winds. I remember in 2003, for three days we were battered by strong WSW winds but we were well able to dive Glasilaun Cave and Gully at North Beach Bay. This time, we dived around ‘Bofin itself, in particular The Stags, Glasilaun Cave, and the recently discovered Feach Carraig at the NW corner of North Beach Bay. The charts show shallow water for the location but some years ago while on a lobster pot search for a local fisherman, Pat Coffey and I found that the marked shallows were in fact closer to 30 metres. We have enjoyed many fine dives at this location since then. Other sites dived during the week were Bouchal Rock at Inishark, Spotted Rock and Mweelaundhu at Inishgort and the SW corner of High Island.
We enjoyed fine weather and diving conditions for our stay on ‘Bofin, but we got payback on our Saturday morning exit from the island. The seas were rough and we were drenched to the point that we considered logging it as a dive, but the experience showed as dry clothes were near to hand and was followed by a quick lunch at Oliver’s Bar at Cleggan Harbour.