Diving? Scotland? Are you INSANE? 5 Reasons that diving is the perfect Scottish past-time.

It seems a bit barmy on the face of it, but I reckon diving is the perfect hobby for the Scottish people

We're lucky in Scotland, we have hills - but we also have sideways rain and hundred mile an hour winds. I like hillwalking and skiing, but what puts me off is the idea that I might end up cold and wet. Diving on the other hand, isn't cold and wet. A little surprising to some people, but we dress up in warm fluffy undersuits and then climb into air-tight drysuits. The result is a nice toasty warm dive. Sometimes.

It's not like the Maldives, but then the skiing and hillwalking isn't exactly like the alps either.

That brings me to my first of five reasons that diving and Scotland were made for each other:

1) The weather

When it rains, we dive. When it snows, we dive. When it's windy, we dive (somewhere sheltered). When it's warm and sunny.... we dive. Warm and sunny? I think we have BBQs, I can't remember.

Sometimes you forget that it's raining on the surface till you come back up and sit at 3 metres, waiting for your safety stop and looking up at the drops falling on the loch surface. It always seems calmer under the water, and guess what? It's sometimes warmer too. In winter, the water temperature can be 12 degrees when it's minus 5 on the surface - you didn't think about that did you? Granted, most people tend to think of the sea side being windy and unforgiving in the throws of winter, but then few venture into the water. We do, and it's great.

Which brings me to my second point:

2) You need some sea

We aren't short of salt water in Scotland. Last I checked, the water levels aren't falling, they're rising. Bonus!

We have a rich heritage of sea fishing too, which presents us with lost of harbours, boats, skippers and aw hing.

What makes Scotland more ideal than some other European countries, however, is the crazy west coast topography. We have over 6000 miles of coastline, in fact Norway is the only country in Europe with more coast than Britain, but we share similar geological assets. Loch Fyne, the longest of the sea lochs, extends 40 miles in land. This makes it great for finding sheltered spots and easy to pick another site if you arrive and the one you planned to dive is maxed out with divers already.

Which brings me to my third point:

3) The scenery is pretty good.

Much is said by many about Scotland, but one thing that everyone agrees on is that "the hills and stuff are nice". What's that got to do with diving? Not a huge amount, but it is an undoubted benefit to diving in Scotland.

It so happens that a lot of the great diving occurs in the same places as "the hills and stuff". Think the Sound of Mull, Oban, Skye, Argyll and Bute, The Firth of Forth.

With great scenery comes menacing midges. Fortunately, midges dislike salt water and hate the wind - the best place to avoid them is, you guessed it, by the sea (or under it).

4) The food

I was diving in the Maldives recently and we were told that a German biologist had catalogued over 650 species on the house reef on which we were diving. "Ah", I thought, "how many can you eat though?". Whilst there is plenty of tasty seafood in tropical waters, it moves pretty fast. That's what happens when the water is 30 degrees, we don't have the same problem in Scotland.

The Scots have a history of eating well. We enjoy the finer things in life, like deep fried donner meat pizza calzone in batter. Whilst it's a well known fact that Haggis dwell only in the higher regions, their shelled cousins, the Scallops are found in record numbers under the waves. Amongst the other edible delights that you can encounter are lobsters, crabs, mussels and oysters. For the particularly brave, there's also urchins.

5) The wrecks

People have been sinking their ships around Scotland for hundreds of years. The Forth is home to planes, submarines, U-Boats and an aircraft carrier as well as a selection of shopping trolleys from Tesco, Asda and Sainsbury's.

The Sound of Mull has a number of great Steam ships including the famous Hispania. The visibility is not to shabby up there too.

The jewel in the crown for Scotland is Scapa Flow. The German High Seas fleet lies on it's bottom offering divers the chance to see a part of history. The only site in the world that comes close is Truk Lagoon in Micronesia. It's not as good, in my opinion, as you can't see the wrecks for all the fish.

If this inspires you to take up a hobby that isn't weather dependant, but gets you out and about in the great landscape of Scotland, then get in touch via our contact page.