Scotland’s first snorkel trail has been created by the ScottishWildlife Trust featuring nine beaches and bays on the coast of Wester Ross and Sutherland, where the rich variety of Scotland’s marine life can be seen.
The self-led North West Highlands Snorkel Trail is for beginners and advanced snorkel enthusiasts alike.
Trail locations include the sandy Achmelvich Bay billed as perfect for beginners with plenty of fish, shellfish and kelp beds.
Meanwhile Gruinard Bay headland offers low tide exploration where seagrass and kelp shelter numerous fish and shellfish, and rare maerl.
Mellon Charles is a former naval base dating to the Second World War, where the sea beneath the old pier is a haven for sea urchins, anemones and wrasse.
The island of Tanera Mor off Achiltibuie has steep drop offs either side of its landing platform, which are good for snorkelling and where kelp and crevasses shelter lobsters and crabs.
Noel Hawkins, Living Seas Communities Officer, Scottish Wildlife Trust said: “ The new trail is self-led, but we are hoping to establish a training programme for local people to become qualified snorkel instructors, and also a snorkel club at the local leisure centre to introduce younger members of the community to snorkelling and their local marine environment.”
Lizzie Bird, Instructor Trainer, British Sub Aqua Club said: “Lots of people might think it’s too cold to snorkel in Scotland but the colours and life under the surface in places like the north west coast are up there with the coral reefs you can find abroad.
“Anyone can snorkel at any age as long as they are confident in the water. They don’t have to be fantastic swimmers and the best thing is it’s a way to look at a world that you rarely see.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here