Gozo
Cathedral Cave
Swim into a five-metre entrance on Gozo's north coast, follow the passage up, and surface inside an enormous domed chamber with fifteen metres of air above your head. Take the regulator out and listen to everyone else laughing.
Sea conditions
Excellent right now
Flat, sheltered and calm
Forecast for the site, updated 01:33 AM
- Waves
- 0.4 m
- from ESE
- Wind
- 7 km/h
- SSW, gusts 14
- Swell
- 0.3 m
- 5 s period
- Sea temp
- 28 °C
- air 27 °C
Next 7 days
Sunrise 06:47, sunset 19:06
Exposed to wind and swell from: NW (315°), N (0°), NE (45°). The north coast of Gozo, so any northerly swell shuts it down and the gorge amplifies whatever does get in. Excellent in a southerly or in flat calm. The cave faces west, which means the afternoon is dramatically better lit than the morning. Visibility outside is usually very good, often 25 m plus. Best season: May to October, with the best light between mid-afternoon and early evening. Autumn gives warm water and calmer north-coast conditions than spring..
The dive
The approach alone is worth the trip. Wied il-Għasri is a slot of a gorge, barely wide enough for two people to swim abreast, with cliff on both sides and a strip of sky overhead. You kit up at the bottom of a long flight of steps or on a ladder just along the coast, finn out through the gorge, and turn right onto the open coast. The cave mouth is only five metres down, unremarkable enough that first-timers swim straight past it.
Inside, the passage opens and rises, and then the surface appears above you. You come up into a vault the size of a church, ceiling roughly fifteen metres above the water, the whole thing lit that particular electric blue that happens when the only light source is coming up through the sea. A small fissure in the rock above the waterline lets fresh air in and a shaft of daylight with it, so it is safe to take the regulator out and talk. At the back, where the roof drops to about a metre above the water, two shafts have been cut by hand straight up through the rock to the clifftop.
Back outside, the dive is a proper dive rather than a party trick. The seabed off the cave is scattered with enormous boulders, the reef falls away to thirty metres and more, and there is enough structure to fill a second half: groupers that have decided divers are furniture, octopus in every third crack, parrotfish grazing, and seahorses in the shallow weed for anyone with the patience to look properly. The cave faces west, so book the afternoon slot and let the sun do the work.
- Surfacing inside a cathedral-sized air pocket lit electric blue from below
- The swim out through the Għasri gorge, worth the trip on its own
- Two hand-cut shafts rising from the back of the dome to the clifftop
- A boulder field and reef edge outside that make it a full dive, not just a stunt
- Afternoon sun turning the whole cave into a light box
Typical plan
Kit up at the inlet, swim out through the gorge on the surface or just below it, then turn right and drop to 5 m to find the entrance on the wall. Follow the passage in and up, surface in the dome, take five minutes to enjoy it and check everyone is happy, then drop back out. Turn the second half into a reef dive: out over the boulders to 25 or 30 m for ten minutes, then a long shallow return at 10 to 15 m ending in the weed where the small stuff lives. Fifty to sixty minutes on a 12 litre cylinder, 32 percent nitrox if you plan to spend time at 30 m. Torch each, a spare in the group, and enough gas reserve that nobody is thinking about it while inside.
What the bottom looks like
- 1Narrow gorge swim-out at Wied il-Għasri4 m deep · 40 m out
- 2Cave entrance on the right-hand wall5 m deep · 130 m out
- 3The Blue Dome: surface in the air pocket0 m deep · 170 m out
- 4Two hand-cut shafts to the clifftop at the back0 m deep · 180 m out
- 5Giant boulder field outside the cave18 m deep · 230 m out
- 6Reef edge falling past 30 m30 m deep · 290 m out
- 7Shallow weed where the seahorses hide9 m deep · 370 m out
Rock and huge fallen boulders outside the cave with sand and rubble between them, fine sediment on the cave floor, and patchy weed in the shallows.
Who you might meet
Cardinalfish
Almost always · Sultan iċ-ċawl
Cleaner shrimp
Almost always · Gamblu
Dusky grouper
Often · Ċerna
Common octopus
Often · Qarnit
Mediterranean parrotfish
Often · Marlozz
Scorpionfish
Often · Ċippullazza
Nudibranchs
Often · Spring
Mediterranean moray
Sometimes · Morina
Common dentex
Sometimes · Dentiċi
Greater amberjack
Sometimes · Aċċola · Late summer
Slipper lobster
Lucky day · Ċikala
Long-snouted seahorse
Lucky day · Żiemel tal-baħar
Getting in and staying safe
Shore dive, and not a lazy one. The classic route is the road down the Għasri valley to a small parking area, then a long flight of steps to the inlet at the bottom, carrying kit both ways. Many centres instead use a ladder a short distance east along the coast in summer, which shortens the walk but adds an exposed entry. Parking is limited and fills early in season, so go first thing or take the afternoon slot for the light. There are no toilets, no kiosk and no shade at the inlet: nearest facilities are up in Għasri or over at Marsalforn. Boat access is also possible and several Gozo operators run it that way when the shore entry is uncomfortable.
- Overhead environment with no direct ascent for part of the route
- Long steps with full kit, a genuine effort on the way back up
- Slippery rock and ladder at the entry, especially with any swell
- Surge funnels hard through the narrow gorge and closes the site quickly
- Air quality in the dome depends on the fissure, do not linger if it smells stale
- Huge unstable boulders on the seabed outside the cave
- Depth outside the cave runs past 30 m, easy to drift deeper than planned
A bit of history
Wied il-Għasri is a classic Gozitan valley cut down through the Upper Coralline limestone to the sea, and the cave is a solution and collapse feature in the same rock. The two shafts at the back of the dome were hewn by hand from the clifftop, a reminder that this coast was worked for salt and fished from long before anyone thought of diving it. The site picks up several names depending on whom you ask: Cathedral Cave for the size of the vault, the Blue Dome for the light, and Għar ir-Riħ, the cave of the wind, for what it does when a swell runs.
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Further reading: Calypso Sub-Aqua Club: The Blue Dome, Għasri Valley · Atlantis Gozo: Cathedral Cave, Għasri Valley · Visit Gozo: Cathedral Cave, Għasri Valley · Blue Hole Diving Gozo: Cathedral Cave and Blue Dome