A Dive to Remember: St Abbs and the Wolffish

In another entry from SCUBA magazine's 2025 writing competition, A Dive to Remember, Tom Ingram makes the case for voluntary marine reserves with a visit to St Abbs in south-eastern Scotland.

Briefing:

Established in 1984, the Berwickshire marine reserve encompasses 8km of the stunning sea and coastline around Eyemouth and St Abbs. It remains the first and, sadly, only voluntary marine reserve in Scotland.

The dive:

Although there are many outstanding dive sites in the reserve, the one must do dive for me is ‘Anemone Gullies’. Setting off from the picture perfect sleepy fishing village of St Abbs on a calm sunny morning, the excitement building of the varied natural wonders above and below the waters you can see at any point during the year will blow you away.

Wolffish, St Abbs celebrities

To reach the dive site you make your way past the steep sided dramatic sea cliffs by boat, which are covered in the defining sound of sea bird colonies in spring and early summer, but as this particular dive was in September we had numerous seal sightings, and a wonderful pod of dolphins accompany us up to the iconic St Abbs head lighthouse. 

Tom Ingram, sightseeing

On this day, day the water was that beautiful deep blue colour, you know the one I mean, that one which only happens on the rarest of occasions. The sea was calm, and as we descended beneath the waves in the shadow of the cliffs, the incredible biodiversity of the seabed just opened up before our eyes. Brittlestars everywhere, plentiful crabs and lobsters, monkfish, flat fish, wrasse and jellyfish, to name a few. Shoals of silver scad shimmering as they darted by overhead, even a surprising cod came swimming by and disappeared into a large crack beneath me. You just didn’t know where to look.

You can tell immediately this is a protected area. As the name suggests, we came upon the first of a series of gullies, lined with plumose anemones, cylista anemones and dead men’s fingers. These seem to run parallel with each other, and as you swim down one into deeper water you can traverse and swim back up the next to a shallower depth. As you peer closer there’s all manner of different species of nudibranchs and small shrimps and creatures going about their business, it’s just an absolute delight to see.

As we swam through the final gully, out of the corner of my eye I spotted the unmistakable grey head of the beautiful wolffish peering out of a small crack in the reef. Not only one but two were at home and we spent the final magical moments of the dive enjoying their company.

Debrief:

If you’re a lover of nature and incredible scenery, then a visit to the Berwickshire marine reserve at any time of year is an absolute must. If only there were more of these areas for us all to enjoy.

This article was originally published in SCUBA magazine, Issue 156, June 2025. For more membership benefits, visit bsac.com/benefits.

Images in this online version may have been substituted from the original images in SCUBA magazine due to usage rights.