Farne Islands August 2025

Mid August saw the 2025 trip to the Farne Islands.

This time we were diving on Mara Mhor, an excellently equipped catamaran run by Sovereign divers and stayed (mostly) at Farne Lodge in Beadnell. The weather throughout the weekend was fabulous with flat calm seas and bright sunshine, showing off the islands at their stunning best! We had a great bunch of people including two RVC Ocean Diver graduands, one doing her first sea dive.

Unfortunately though there were not a lot of seals this year. One possible reason was the appearance in May of a pod of Orca whereupon all the seals swiftly relocated to other parts of the coast. Although the Orca have gone now, the Farnes themselves have remained depleted ever since.

The first dive was on the picturesque walls and canyons of Big Harcar, where Katherine and I did glimpse a seal which we surprised in a gully. Second dive was in a kelp bed on the Crumbstone where there were quite a few seals above the water: Andy and Charles has a great encounter with a young seal and myself and Katherine saw another as well.

Third dive was the wreck of the St Andre which remains a crowd pleaser with plenty of lobsters, crabs, friendly ballen wrasse following the divers and other assorted fish. This dive also has a very nice wall nearby to finish on.

The final dive was the wreck of the Coryton, in a few metres of water off the beach near Lindisfarne. Though the viz was not too good on this there was plenty of life to see including some whopping lobsters. On the chug up to the site we had a fabulous and lengthy encounter with bottlenose dolphins around the boat, leaping and spinning as well. Not a bad trade for the absent seals...

Above the water the weekend was most enjoyable with a couple of great evenings at the Craster Arms. Many thanks to the divers for some great teamwork and excellent company!