Allihes Week
The village of Allihes was the location for the Cork SAC August week long diving holiday. The coastal village is overlooked by eroded hills and a worked out copper mine (top right). The houses are brightly painted. Strangely for a village with three pubs and and only one shop, there is also a disused methodist chapel that was used by the miners from 1812 to 1884 (bottom left). Abstinence has not been an enduring success here, least of all for the members of Cork SAC.
The weather could best be described as variable. Those who made it down on Saturday morning had a boat dive between Garnish Pier and Allihes. A few went for shore dives in the afternoon. Sunday was a washout, a day for swimming, or walking ,or watching hurling in the pub.
Monday we went back to the area between Garnish Pier and Allihes. Good samaritan Rory had a tube on his boat punctured helping a fisherman retrieve a crate, then damaged the prop towing an upturned dingy ashore proving that no good deed goes unpunished.
Then on Tuesday the boats were brought around to Dursey sound and we dived Crow head, leaving from the pier by the sound. The first group to leave that morning were watched by dolphins as they dived. The pier is a sun trap and there were some sunburned faces that evening.
Wednesday was the best day with two dives at the Cow Rock and a sunfish too. The cow is one of three offshore sea stacks the others being the larger “Bull” about half a mile to the north, and the smaller “Calf” to the south. The Cow encloses a narrow rectangular 35 meter deep lagoon, open to the west, and with an entrance through a sea arch to the east. It is a beautiful natural setting above the waves and there is great diving below. We had two dives, one inside the lagoon and the other to the north of The Cow.
Thursday and Friday we dived between Garnish Pier and Dursey Sound ‘around the corner and up a bit’. Dave and Brian went for a night dive Thursday, with half-full bottles, at Garnish Pier, just because Brian needed to log one for his leading diver. We regretted not bringing more air because the fish life was excellent, and a longer dive would have been great. The unnamed cove that we call “around the corner and up a bit” between Garnish Pier and Dursey Sound is a beautiful dive site below the waves, even if it doesn’t look like much above water. The best thing is to drop into about 20-25 meters at the west side of the cove, then work north for depth if you want it before doubling back south east to finish amongst some lovely pinnacles and gullies full of wrasse. Some of our white water divers make for the caves and surf and that good old washing machine effect. Others send up a SMB in that spot to frighten the Coxn then fin out a bit before surfacing.
Saturday some headed back to Cork and others went to Caherdaniel to dive lamb’s head as part of the regional weekend Saturday and Sunday.
