Diving in Mellieħa
23 dive sites around Mellieħa: 4 wrecks, 8 caves, 18 reefs and 2 walls. The stretch takes in Ċirkewwa, Paradise Bay, Armier, L-Aħrax, Anchor Bay, Popeye Village, Għadira and Mellieħa Bay.
Depths run from 1 to 50 m. 15 suit Open Water divers and 1 is a technical dive. 17 are shore dives and 6 need a boat. Ċirkewwa, Anchor Bay and L'Ahrax Point are localities with several dives each.
Most of these sites close when the wind or swell comes from the N, W and NW, and almost all are sheltered in a wind from the SE and S.
The most dived: Ċirkewwa Arch, P29 (Ċirkewwa), Rozi (Ċirkewwa) and Susie's Pool. Every site below has live sea conditions, a seabed sketch and the marine life to look for.
Best right now
- Slugs Bay49Marginal
- Devil's Reef6Stay dry
- Scotscraig6Stay dry
Scores blend the wave, swell and wind forecasts for each site against the directions it is open to. Check the site page before you go.
Localities
Dive sites around Mellieħa
Digital Render
Ċirkewwa Arch
Cirkewwa, Malta
A natural stone span at 12 m with eight metres of clear water beneath it, reached along a reef wall stitched with short caves and tunnels. One of the best beginner dives anywhere in the Mediterranean.
Digital Render
P29
Cirkewwa, Malta
A 52 m East German built patrol boat sitting upright on sand at 34 m, reachable on a shore dive from Ċirkewwa. Clean, photogenic and probably the most satisfying wreck in Malta for the effort involved.
Digital RenderRozi
Cirkewwa, Malta
A 33 m Grand Harbour tug scuttled in 1992, sitting upright and remarkably whole on sand at 34 m with her mast reaching up to 20 m. Malta's most dived wreck, and deservedly so.
Digital RenderSusie's Pool
Cirkewwa, Malta
A sheltered rocky pool and six metre plateau where half of Malta has learned to dive, with a reef wall dropping to 30 m and a Madonna statue tucked in a cave at 18 m.
Digital RenderAnchor Bay Reef
Anchor Bay, Malta
A tumble of cliff fallen limestone blocks on both sides of the bay, stitched together with sand channels and Posidonia, making short swim throughs and cracks that are absolutely stuffed with small life. Twelve metres at the deepest.
Digital Render
Anchor Bay Training Area
Anchor Bay, Malta
The sheltered inner corner of Anchor Bay behind the jetty, one to six metres deep over sand, rock and seagrass. This is where a lot of people in Malta take their very first breath underwater, and where everyone else finishes their dive.
Digital RenderInland Sea
L'Ahrax Point, Malta
A roofless cavern at the top of Malta where the rock has fallen in and left a near-circular pool ringed by walls ten metres high. You can surface inside, take your regulator out and look straight up at the sky.
Digital RenderNorth Reef
L'Ahrax Point, Malta
A long spine of rock running north off the tip of Malta, stacked with boulders, small canyons and swim-throughs before it slides away to thirty metres. Reachable from shore, much more pleasant from a boat.
Digital RenderParadise Bay
Cirkewwa, Malta
The quieter half of Ċirkewwa: boulder fields, drop offs, seagrass and a shallow white arch lit up by sunlight, all in beginner friendly depths.
Digital RenderScorpion Cave
Anchor Bay, Malta
A big, bright cavern on the south wall of Anchor Bay with an entrance wide enough that the exit never leaves your sight, plus an air pocket under a domed roof where you can pop up and grin at each other. One of the gentlest introductions to overhead diving in Malta.
Digital RenderThe Anchor
Anchor Bay, Malta
The feature the bay is named after: a three metre iron anchor lying on sand at eight metres, big enough to swim under and thickly furred with growth, with its chain trailing back toward the head of the inlet.
Digital RenderTunnel
L'Ahrax Point, Malta
The doorway into the Aħrax inland sea. A short rock passage, dark from outside and glowing blue once you are in it, shallow enough that snorkellers can do it on one breath.
Digital RenderArmier Bay
Mellieħa, Malta
A shallow sandy bay on the Marfa ridge with a very large Admiralty pattern anchor lying in about five metres and its chain vanishing under the seagrass. Not a spectacular dive, but a genuinely pleasant shallow potter with Comino on the horizon.
Digital RenderCave
L'Ahrax Point, Malta
A pocket cavern tucked into the very tip of Malta, sitting in five or six metres of water. Keep the rock on your shoulder, swim, and you will find it without a compass.
Digital Render
Devil's Reef
Mellieħa, Malta
A boat dive under the cliffs at Malta's northwestern corner, where a bright shallow plateau ends without warning in a wall that falls past 50 metres and keeps on going.
Digital RenderMV Pippo
Mellieħa, Malta
A stubby concrete-hulled tuna boat sitting upright on clean sand at around 35 metres off Malta's north-eastern tip, reached only by boat and enjoyed in short, tidy bites.
Digital RenderRdum il-Qawwi
Mellieħa, Malta
A jumble of huge fallen boulders under the Marfa ridge cliffs, stitched together by arches, swim-throughs and small caves in the shallows, with a slope that runs on to 45 m if you want it.
Digital RenderRdum l-Ahmar
Mellieħa, Malta
Massive boulders and swim-throughs on the wild corner of coast beside Ahrax Point, with amberjack cruising overhead and eagle rays turning up often enough to be worth watching for.
Digital RenderReef Beyond Rozi
Cirkewwa, Malta
The Cirkewwa wall keeps running north long after everyone else has turned around at the Arch. Out there it steepens into a proper deep face with overhangs, snagged netting and more than 40 metres of water under your fins.
Digital RenderScotscraig
Mellieħa, Malta
A stubby Scottish car ferry that ended her career as a film prop and now sits upright in 21 metres off Anchor Bay. Shallow, quiet and rarely visited, which is exactly why the fish like her.
Digital RenderSikka l-Bajda
Mellieħa, Malta
A big, wild offshore reef north of Malta with a drop-off that keeps falling past 70 metres. Open sea, open water, proper boat diving, and the closest thing Malta offers to a blue-water hunting ground.
Digital RenderSlugs Bay
Mellieħa, Malta
A tiny cove on the north shoulder of Mellieha Bay with a rock arch, a lot of small life, fossil shark teeth in the shingle, and nothing deeper than about 12 metres.
Digital RenderSmugglers Cave
Mellieħa, Malta
A shallow cave and swimthrough at the foot of the Rdum l-Ahmar cliffs on the north side of Marfa Ridge, with a boulder-strewn slope running out to 18 metres.