Cirkewwa · Malta
Ċirkewwa
Malta's busiest and most generous stretch of shore diving, all of it within a few hundred metres: two scuttled wrecks, two natural arches, a reef wall full of swim throughs, a Madonna in a cave and a shallow pool for first bubbles.
Sea conditions
Excellent right now
Flat, sheltered and calm
Forecast for the site, updated 02:29 AM
- Waves
- n/a
- Wind
- 4 km/h
- S, gusts 8
- Swell
- n/a
- Sea temp
- n/a
- air 25 °C
Next 7 days
Sunrise 06:47, sunset 19:05
Exposed to wind and swell from: NW (315°), W (270°), N (0°). The coastline here faces west and northwest into the Comino channel, so a northwesterly or westerly of any strength makes the entries dangerous and the shallows murky. Winds from the north through east and southeast leave it flat calm, which is most of the summer. Check the marine park webcam before you drive up. Best season: April to November, with the best water clarity from June to October. Winter diving happens whenever the northwesterly lies down, and the site is often the first to come back after a blow..
Dives at Ċirkewwa
P29
Cirkewwa, Malta
Rozi
Cirkewwa, Malta
Ċirkewwa Arch
Cirkewwa, Malta
Paradise Bay
Cirkewwa, Malta
Susie's Pool
Cirkewwa, Malta
Reef Beyond Rozi
Cirkewwa, Malta
The dive
If you only get one day of diving in Malta, this is where a local would send you. Ċirkewwa sits on the northwest tip of the island, beside the ferry terminal where everybody catches the boat to Gozo, and the whole area is now a managed marine park. From one car park and a handful of sets of stairs you can reach a 52 m patrol boat, a scuttled tug, a natural arch big enough to fly through, a wall of small caves and tunnels, and a beginner's plateau in six metres of water.
The layout is simple once you have it. Head north from the main entry and you are on the reef wall running towards the Arch, with the sand shelving away beside it. Swim out from Susie's Pool and you find the memorial stone, then an old anchor on the seagrass, and then the P29 looming up out of the blue with the Rozi a short hop beyond her. South around the headland sits Paradise Bay with its own smaller arch and boulder fields. Very few places in the Mediterranean pack this much into a walk from the car.
That popularity is the one real downside. On a summer morning the stairs can look like an airport queue, the shallows get hazy from fin wash, and every group is heading the same way. Get in early, go left when everyone goes right, and the place opens up. Conditions are usually excellent, the water is clear, and the only thing that reliably shuts it down is wind out of the northwest and west piling swell straight onto the entry points.
- Two scuttled wrecks reachable on a shore dive
- A natural arch with eight metres of clear water beneath it
- Reef wall stitched with short, well lit tunnels and caverns
- Madonna statue in her cave at 18 m
- Six metre plateau that has taught half of Malta to dive
Typical plan
Pick one objective per dive rather than trying to link everything. A classic day is P29 first at 34 m with a reef return along the wall, a long surface interval at the kiosk, then the Arch and the caves at 18 to 20 m in the afternoon. Nitrox 32 pays for itself across two dives. Whatever you choose, plan the return leg shallow along the reef so you drift back to the stairs with gas in hand and a comfortable exit.
What the bottom looks like
- 1Susie's Pool plateau, training area5 m deep · 15 m out
- 2Madonna statue in its cavern18 m deep · 60 m out
- 3Ċirkewwa Arch, the Green or Right Arch12 m deep · 80 m out
- 4Reef wall with small caves and swim through tunnels20 m deep · 100 m out
- 5Posidonia meadow with the old anchor landmark22 m deep · 110 m out
- 6Patrol boat P29 upright on sand34 m deep · 150 m out
- 7Tugboat Rozi, a short swim beyond34 m deep · 190 m out
- 8Open sand outside the reef, dropping past 40 m38 m deep · 250 m out
Coralline limestone reef and boulder fields close in, giving way to pale sand and Posidonia meadows as you move offshore.
Who you might meet
Common two banded seabream
Almost always · Sargu
Damselfish
Almost always · Kaħlija
Ornate wrasse
Almost always · Tirda tal-passa
Posidonia meadow
Almost always · Alka
Dusky grouper
Often · Ċerna
Mediterranean moray
Often · Morina
Common octopus
Often · Qarnit
Barracuda
Often · Lqiq · late summer and autumn
Cardinalfish
Often · Sultan iċ-ċawl
Fireworm
Often · Busuf · summer
Amberjack
Sometimes · Aċċola · autumn
Nudibranchs
Sometimes · spring and autumn
Getting in and staying safe
Very easy. There is a dedicated diver car park, and you must display your certification card behind the windscreen or you will be ticketed. From the parking it is a short walk on concrete and rock to several entry points, all with steps and handrails, the main one dropping into the natural alcove of Susie's Pool where you can stand in waist deep water and sort yourself out. A separate large stride entry serves the Rozi and the Arch. Toilets, cafes and snack kiosks sit around the ferry terminal a couple of minutes away, and there is shade and a place to sit while you wait out a surface interval. Paradise Bay has its own parking and beach access just south.
- Gozo ferries and small boats working constantly nearby, so stay inside the buoyed diver zones
- Very busy site in summer with queues on the stairs and divers crossing each other
- Slippery rock and steps, worse when there is any swell
- Surge at the entry points as soon as a northwesterly builds
- Depths to 34 m and beyond on the wrecks and the sand outside the reef
- Wreck penetration on P29 and Rozi carries overhead and silt risk
- Jellyfish drifting in during late summer
- Long walk back up the steps in full kit after a big dive
A bit of history
Ċirkewwa is Coralline limestone country, hard grey rock that erodes into overhangs, caves and collapsed caverns, which is exactly where the arches come from. The Arch is the roof of a cavern that gave up long ago and left the span standing. The diving story here is more recent: a local club placed the Madonna statue in a cavern at 18 m in November 1987, the tug Rozi was scuttled offshore in September 1992 as an attraction for tourist submarine trips, and the patrol boat P29 followed in August 2007 as a purpose made artificial reef. The area is now run as the Ċirkewwa Marine Park under a Notice to Mariners, with buoyed zones separating divers from boat traffic.
Divers say
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Further reading: Ċirkewwa Marine Park official site · Malta Dive Sites: Cirkewwa · Wikipedia: Ċirkewwa · PADI dive site: Cirkewwa · Calypso Sub Aqua Club: Marfa Point