Malta

Smugglers Cave

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.

Open Water🕳️ Cave🪸 Reef3 to 18 mBoat divePopularity: lowAlso called Smugglers Cove, Smugglers Reef

Plan this dive

Sea conditions

100

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

Today☁️100 ? m
14 SW

Sat☁️100 ? m
13 SSW

Sun🌦️92 ? m
5 ENE

Mon☁️100 ? m
13 WNW

Tue☁️95 ? m
20 NW

Wed🌤️93 ? m
22 E

Thu🌤️100 ? m
10 NNE

Sunrise 06:47, sunset 19:05

Exposed to wind and swell from: NW (315°), N (0°), NE (45°). Wide open to the north. Only worth doing in settled weather with the wind off the land; any northerly component puts swell against the cliff and rules the cave out even if the slope outside is still diveable. Best season: June to October, when northerlies are least frequent and visibility is at its best..

The dive

This one starts at the top rather than the bottom. Right under the cliffs there is a cave in about three metres of water with a small swimthrough at the back, and most dives either begin or finish in it, because bobbing about in a sunlit hole at the base of a cliff face is a good way to spend the shallow end of your air.

Beyond the cave the ground falls away in a gentle mix of sand and rock, down through boulder fields to a maximum of roughly 18 metres. The boulders are the point: big and small blocks tumbled off the cliffs above, each one hiding something. Work slowly along them and you turn up octopus, morays, parrotfish grazing in the shallows, damselfish clouds over the high points and a stingray flapping away from a sand patch if you are lucky.

It is an easy dive in good conditions, shallow enough for newer divers with a guide and varied enough that experienced ones do not get bored, which makes it a popular second stop on a north coast boat day. There is no shore option worth attempting, so you go with a boat or you do not go.

The catch is the exposure. This is the open north side of Marfa Ridge under a cliff, with nothing between you and the sea, so the cave is a delight on a flat day and a washing machine on a bad one. Surge in an overhead space is not a place for improvisation, so if there is any swell running, admire the cave from outside.

A sunlit cave and swimthrough in three metres of water
Boulder field that rewards a slow, nosy search
Shallow maximum of 18 metres, so plenty of bottom time
Good second dive on a north coast boat day
Quiet site: rarely more than one group on it

Typical plan

Drop in near the cliff, head down the slope over the sand and boulders to 16 to 18 metres, then work parallel to the coast through the blocks for the middle of the dive. Come back up the slope, save ten minutes for the cave and swimthrough at 3 to 5 metres, and surface under a DSMB for the pick-up. An hour on a single cylinder is comfortable, air is plenty, and a torch makes the boulder cracks and the cave worthwhile.

What the bottom looks like

1Shallow cave at the cliff base3 m deep · 8 m out
2Small swimthrough at the back of the cave4 m deep · 14 m out
3Sandy sloping ground9 m deep · 50 m out
4Boulder field of fallen blocks14 m deep · 110 m out
5Rocky bottom at maximum depth18 m deep · 180 m out

Cartoon cross-section along the usual route from the boat drop. Depths are approximate.

Sand and rock sloping away from the cliff into a field of large and small fallen boulders.

Who you might meet

Getting in and staying safe

Boat dive. Charters run from Cirkewwa, Mellieha or Marfa and it commonly appears as the second dive of a north coast trip, often paired with other sites along the l-Ahrax coast. The boat drops you close to the cliffs and picks you up in open water, so a DSMB is part of the plan. Nothing at the site itself: no shore, no facilities, no easy walk-out if the weather turns.

Surge inside the cave and swimthrough whenever there is swell
Overhead environment, shallow but still overhead, so keep it in daylight
Falling debris ground under an active cliff face
Boat traffic along the coast, DSMB needed for pick-up
No shore exit at all, the boat is your only way out
Jellyfish drifting along this coast in late summer

A bit of history

The name belongs to the folklore of this coast rather than to a documented event: the cliffs and hidden coves of the Marfa Ridge and l-Ahrax tal-Mellieha were long associated with smuggling and with landing places out of sight of the towers. The rock itself is the hard coralline limestone that caps the ridge, and the boulder ground divers swim over is the debris of centuries of cliff collapse along Rdum l-Ahmar, which translates roughly as the red scree slope.

Divers say

No reviews yet. First one gets bragging rights.

Further reading: Divers Guide: Smugglers Cave and Reef · Greatest Dive Sites: Smugglers Cove, l-Ahrax tal-Mellieha