The dive site Pain's Rock is essentially a pinnacle that rises up and actually breaks the surface of the water, just south of Garland Stone. On the western side of the rock, it drops away fairly sharpish at first down to about 25m, and then follows more of a slope to 50m. On the Eastern side, there's a type of plateau, which bottoms out at, 20m-ish. The rock itself is quite small in diameter at the top but obviously increases in size the deeper you go. Not much light penetration down deep, but lots of boulders and gullies. If you dive this on totally slack water, it's quite good to keep going round and round the rock until you reach the plateau, then head to the western side. Lots of dead man's fingers, congers and crays. We spotted two sunfish here in early September 2005.

TIPS: Be careful of currents, and during spring tides you'd be better looking elsewhere! Look at the site first to see the strength of the current. If the wind is SW to NW, I'd be looking elsewhere. As this site is on the western side of Skomer, it's hit hard by wind and currents. A dive to pick when conditions are favourable. Always carry a delayed SMB with you as when your doing your safety stops you could end up anywhere. But be mindful of putting them up whilst you're at depth on this dive, as they may snag in the kelp on the rock itself. An intermediate to advanced diver site most of the time.

[Add Message]Messages from readers:

[Add Divelog]Divelogs from members:

Take a look at all the pictures!

Crayfish, congers and dead mans fingers can be found on the pinnacle dive site Pain's Rock.

Take a look at some of the other dive destinations.