Explore the home of British Diving!

There is a reason the longest established Dive Shop in the UK is on Swanage Pier: it's because the diving is great.

Swanage Bay is protected from the Westerlies that often reduce visibility in the UK. And there are some excellent shallow dives for both experienced and not-so-experienced divers. Regular shuttle boats will take us to some of the UK's signature wrecks: The Kyarra, Carantan and the Valentine Tanks. There is some great drift diving off Great Harry Rocks and there is always the pier and its host of friendly Blennies.

We are planning 4 boat and 1 shore dive with the possibility of a night dive, if the weather is warm enough.

Depending on the weather conditions there will be opportunities to dive relatively deep wrecks: S.S. Kyarra (22m-30m) or The Betsy Anna (20m-24m). The pier is some 195m long, is in sheltered water and can be dived at any state of the tide. Swanage has a very low tidal range (2m max) and gentle tidal currents (even with spring tides). Diving is shallow, safe and gently slopes to a typical maximum depth of 5m at the end of the pier.

The old pier was constructed in 1859/60 and built for shipping local stone – you can still see the some of the tramways connecting the   pier area to the centre of the town. To cope with ever increasing cargo and day-tripper traffic, the first pile of the new pier was driven in November 1895 and the pier opened in March 1897.

Getting to Swanage

It is roughly 130 miles from London to Swanage Pier and takes roughly 2h30m (plus breaks) to get there. The route is broadly, M3, M27 (at Southampton), A31, then to Bournemouth/Poole. From here, there are two routes – the longer around Wareham and Corfe Castle, or the shorter across the Sandbanks car ferry, coming into Swanage from the North via Studland.

NB: the ferry can actually take longer, especially if it is busy.

Once in the Town, follow the signs to the Pier, we will meet at the Pier at 8:00 am on Saturday

For those taking their car, there is very limited parking (38 spaces only) available on the Pier. On Bank Holiday weekends, the pier normally opens at 7:00am and its car park is often full by 7:30am (7:45 latest). There is a nearby car park 200m up the hill south of the pier. For divers, the Pier Trust provides trolleys for you to lug your gear from the car to the dive entry points. These are essential if you are unfortunate to not get a pier parking space – where they allow you to unload your car of scuba gear just outside the gates.

If you would like to car share then please get in touch.

Who can go?

PADI Open Water divers and above

Each diver will need an SMB, these can be rented from us for £5/weekend.

For equipment rental prices please click here.

How to Book

Please call 0800 699 0243 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .