Holyhead, Wales, United Kingdom

The Skerries Anglesey

The Skerries are a low-lying group of rocky islets off the north coast of Anglesey, marked by an active lighthouse since 1717. The surrounding reefs rise from a seabed of around 25 metres and are renowned among British divers as one of the best North Wales tidal sites, offering drift dives over kelp-cloaked walls, gullies and shipwreck debris. Currents reach several knots at peak flow but produce exceptional visibility and rich growths of plumose anemones, dead man's fingers, jewel anemones, sponges, hydroids, kelp and pink coralline algae. Resident species include ballan wrasse, cuckoo wrasse, pollack, conger eels, lobsters, edible crabs, spider crabs and tompot blennies. Atlantic grey seals are common and curious, often approaching divers in the gullies. Visibility on a good day reaches 8 to 15 metres in summer, and water temperatures vary between 9 and 16 degrees Celsius. The site is dived only in tightly timed slack water windows from Holyhead charter boats and is suited to advanced divers comfortable with drift profiles in cold water with drysuits.