Diving in Mġarr
14 dive sites around Mġarr: 4 wrecks, 3 caves, 8 reefs and 9 walls. The stretch takes in Għajnsielem, Xatt l-Aħmar, Ras il-Ħobż, Mġarr ix-Xini, Ta' Ċenċ and Sannat.
Depths run from 5 to 100 m. 4 suit Open Water divers. 11 are shore dives and 3 need a boat. Ras il-Hobz, Xatt l-Ahmar and Mgarr ix-Xini are localities with several dives each.
Most of these sites close when the wind or swell comes from the E, SE, S and SW, and almost all are sheltered in a wind from the N, NE and NW.
The most dived: East Reef (Ras il-Hobz), Middle Finger, MV Cominoland and MV Karwela. Every site below has live sea conditions, a seabed sketch and the marine life to look for.
Best right now
- East ReefRas il-Hobz54Marginal
- Kantra CavesMgarr ix-Xini51Marginal
- Middle FingerRas il-Hobz8Stay 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 Mġarr
Digital Render
East Reef
Ras il-Hobz, Gozo
The sunny, shallow half of Ras il-Hobz: a gently stepping reef off the eastern side of the headland that rarely passes 20 metres and makes an easy second dive or a relaxed training site.
Digital Render
Middle Finger
Ras il-Hobz, Gozo
Gozo's most famous pinnacle, a single column of coralline limestone whose splayed summit sits around 8 to 10 metres down while its outer face drops past 90 metres into the dark.
Digital Render
MV Cominoland
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
A thirty-five metre wartime minelayer turned tourist cruiser, sunk upright on sand at forty metres. Smaller and further out than the Karwela, which is exactly why some divers prefer it.
Digital RenderMV Karwela
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
The most dived wreck in Gozo, and deservedly: a fifty-metre ferry sitting dead upright on sand at forty metres with a staircase that every underwater photographer in the Mediterranean has shot.
Digital RenderBlat ta' Bologna
Mgarr ix-Xini, Gozo
A proper deep wall and drop-off just outside Mgarr ix-Xini, falling past fifty metres with big fallen boulders strewn along its foot. The grown-up dive of this stretch of south coast.
Digital RenderHephaestus
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
Gozo's newest big wreck: a sixty-metre bunkering tanker that wrecked itself on Qawra Point in a storm, then got a second career on the sand at Xatt l-Ahmar. Deep, upright and still sharp-edged.
Digital Render
Kantra Caves
Mgarr ix-Xini, Gozo
Two small caves set into the wall near the mouth of Mgarr ix-Xini, shallow enough for a newly certified diver and dark enough to make good backlit photographs. Worth doing as part of the bay, not as a special journey.
Digital RenderMV Xlendi
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
Gozo's first artificial reef, and the one that went wrong: an eighty-metre ferry that rolled during the scuttle and settled upside down at forty-two metres. Big, dark, strictly a look-but-do-not-enter wreck.
Digital RenderWest Reef
Ras il-Hobz, Gozo
The deeper, moodier flank of Ras il-Hobz, looking out towards Fessej Rock. The ground tips over into a proper slope past 30 metres, which is why technical classes queue up for it.
Digital RenderXatt l-Ahmar Reef
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
The wall and boulder run along the southern edge of Red Bay, with caves and overhangs at the top and a drop-off falling to thirty. A proper dive in its own right, not just the road to the wrecks.
Digital RenderFessej Rock
Ras il-Hobz, Gozo
A black fang of limestone standing alone off Gozo's south coast, rising 15 metres into the air and dropping 60 metres below it. Boat only, and worth the ride.
Digital RenderNewwiela Point
Mġarr, Gozo
The southernmost tip of Gozo, dived from a boat under towering cliffs. A shallow plateau for the shallow part of the dive, then a wall and boulder field that keeps falling past sixty metres.
Digital RenderTa' Cenc Reef
Mġarr, Gozo
A small platform at eight metres under the highest cliffs on Gozo, a steep algae-covered wall below it, big boulders at the base, and a cave on the way home with a bend in it worth finding.
Digital RenderXatt l-Ahmar Bay
Xatt l-Ahmar, Gozo
The shallow half of Red Bay: a gentle rock and seagrass plateau just inside the ladders, ideal for training, check dives, a lazy second dive or a night dive while everyone else decompresses.