Wreck Diving in Wexford
11 diveable wrecks in Wexford, Ireland. Depths range from 5–50m.
Girl Arleen
Swim inside the upside-down wheelhouse and look up: the crew's toilet and sink are stuck to what is now the ceiling. The Girl Arleen was a fishing trawler lost in a fog collision in 1995, now lying at 27 metres due east of Baggabaun Head off Hook Head. Mostly broken up, but the inverted wheelhouse is intact and absolutely teeming with marine life -- anemones, crustaceans, and fish have colonised every surface. Strong surface currents are typical but conditions are usually slack on the bottom. Considered one of the best summer boat dives in the Hook Head area, the Girl Arleen is accessible from Slade Harbour (4 miles) or Kilmore Quay. A surreal, memorable dive that rewards those willing to get inside the wreck.
ILV Isolda
"LIGHTHOUSE SERVICE" -- the words were painted in five-foot letters on both sides of the hull. It made no difference. On 19 December 1940, the Irish Lights tender ILV Isolda left Rosslare Harbour carrying crew and Christmas provisions for the Barrels and Coningbeg lightships. Three miles out, with the Saltee Islands off her starboard beam, a German Focke-Wulf Fw 200 Condor attacked without warning and sank her. Six crew members from Dun Laoghaire were killed. Ireland was neutral. The Isolda was on a humanitarian mission to supply lighthouses. She was 198 feet long, 734 tonnes, built at Dublin Dockyard and launched on 26 January 1928. The sinking remains one of the most poignant examples of the dangers faced by neutral Ireland during the Second World War.
SS Ardmore
One of six ships lost. The City of Cork Steam Packet Company was systematically gutted by U-boat warfare during World War I, and the SS Ardmore was among the toll. Built in 1909 at the Caledon Shipbuilding & Engineering Co. in Dundee, 79.3 metres long with an 11-metre beam, she was torpedoed by SM U-95 on 13 November 1917 while carrying general cargo from London to Cork. The attack in St George's Channel, 13 nautical miles west-southwest of the Coningbeg Lightship, killed 19 of her 27 crew. The cumulative losses nearly bankrupted the company. After the war, they rebuilt -- replacing the Ardmore with the SS Ardmore II. The wreck lies in St George's Channel off the Wexford coast.
SS Coningbeg
Two ships. One U-boat. Two days. Eighty-three dead -- sixty-seven of them from a city of just 28,000 people. On 15 December 1917, U-62 torpedoed the SS Formby on the Liverpool to Waterford route. Bad weather delayed the news. Two days later, the SS Coningbeg sailed the same route, unaware her sister ship lay on the bottom. U-62 was still there. All 44 aboard the Coningbeg perished. Originally built as SS Clodagh by Ailsa Shipbuilders in Troon in 1903, the Coningbeg was a Clyde Shipping Company cargo vessel serving the Waterford trade. The dive site off the Wexford coast features strong currents but prolific fish life and colourful marine growth. Together with the Formby, this twin tragedy remains one of the worst maritime disasters of WWI off the Irish coast.
SS Formby
Nobody in Waterford knew. Bad weather had cut the telegraph, and it was assumed the Formby had simply sheltered from the storm. In reality, U-62 had torpedoed the Clyde Shipping Company cargo vessel on 15 December 1917 while she carried cattle from Waterford to Liverpool, killing all 35 crew. Two days later, her sister ship SS Coningbeg sailed the same route into the same waiting U-boat. All 44 aboard the Coningbeg died too. Of the 83 killed across both sinkings, 67 were from Waterford and surrounding communities including Faithlegg and Cheekpoint. The double tragedy devastated the waterfront community and is commemorated as one of the worst maritime disasters of World War I off the Irish coast.
SS Idaho
Walk into Kehoe's Pub in Kilmore Quay and you'll find the bell. An excellent model of the Idaho sits alongside it, commemorating the iron-hulled sailing steamer that ran aground on Coningmore Rocks off Great Saltee Island in dense fog on 1 June 1878. Built by Palmers of Jarrow for the Liverpool & Great Western Steam Company, the 3,500-ton Idaho was carrying 151 passengers, 51 horses, cattle, and 1,000 tons of beef from New York to Liverpool. She drifted off the rock and sank within 20 minutes, but remarkably every soul aboard was rescued. The collapsed wreckage sits on bright sand at 15-25 metres and is one of the main dive sites around the Saltees. An anchor stands at the Kilmore Quay marina gate. Strong and unpredictable tidal currents demand neap-tide diving.
SS Lennox
Chased by a U-boat, a Chinese crew made a desperate choice. In 1917, while evading a German submarine near the Saltee Islands, the SS Lennox struck rocks behind Great Saltee Island and went down. Her Chinese crew swam to the island and then onward to Kilmore -- all surviving. The broken wreckage lies at 10-18 metres in sheltered water behind Great Saltee, marked by a buoy. Two large boilers rise to within 5 metres of the surface -- the most prominent features of the dive. The bow is still recognisable, pointing seaward, and a three-cylinder engine is visible among the wreckage. Conger eels inhabit the broken structure. At 107 metres long, the Lennox was built in 1895 and is now one of the most accessible wreck dives from Kilmore Quay, suitable for novice divers.
SS Lismore
Twenty-eight hours on a hatch cover. That was how 46-year-old John Carley from Wexford Town survived the sinking of the SS Lismore -- clinging to debris in open sea until he washed ashore, the sole survivor. All 18 crew members drowned when this City of Cork Steam Packet Company cargo ship sank off Hook Head on 11 July 1924, carrying cattle and Ford Motor Company parts from Cork to Liverpool. The wreck lies at 35-38 metres and is regularly dived by Hook Sub-Aqua Club, who marked the centenary in 2024 by placing a memorial plaque on the wreck. A commemorative ceremony was held at Kilmore Quay where relatives of the lost crew handed the plaque to the divers. Boat dive from Kilmore Quay or Slade Harbour.
SV Invercauld
Ornate ironwork on the bow, intact after more than a century on the seabed. The SV Invercauld (III) was a 1,416 GRT three-masted steel barque, 237.5 feet long, attacked by the German submarine U-84 on 22 February 1917 while carrying timber from Gulfport, Mississippi, to Fleetwood. After sustaining damage approximately 22 miles southeast of Mine Head, she drifted and sank just south of the Coningmore Rocks near the Saltee Islands. The wreck sits remarkably upright at about 25 metres and is discernible throughout her entire length -- one of the most structurally intact wrecks in the Saltees group. The boilers rise 4 metres off the seabed. Strange and unpredictable currents make this a dive for adequately trained divers only; the current on the shot line may differ significantly from bottom conditions.
SV Royal Arthur
Somewhere in six metres of water off Hook Head, walrus tusks may still lie among the wreckage. The SV Royal Arthur ran aground in 1850 carrying this unusual cargo, and while tusks have been found over the years, some are thought to remain hidden in the scattered debris on the west side of the peninsula. This is a shore dive straight off the camping area -- about as easy as wreck diving gets. But the real draw may be what surrounds it: the extraordinary underwater caverns along Hook Head's western shoreline, where sunlight penetrates through blowholes to create dramatic cathedral-like illumination. Strong tidal currents around the headland require slack water diving. A unique combination of historical curiosity and natural spectacle.
Schlesien
Forget the trawler wreckage for a moment. What makes this site extraordinary is what lies alongside it -- an interconnected cavern system beneath the Hook Head promontory, lit by shafts of sunlight streaming through blowholes above. The Schlesien's scattered remains sit on the west side of the peninsula in 5-10 metres, and they provide a useful focal point for what is really a combined wreck-and-cave shore dive. Cathedral-like lighting fills the chambers as the sun moves overhead. Tidal currents require slack water timing, but the shallow depth and shore access make this ideal for less experienced divers who want something more memorable than a typical training dive. Easily combined with the nearby SV Royal Arthur site.