Beneath Loch Carron

Sue and Michael live on the shores of Loch Carron in Wester Ross, Scotland. Their house is right beside what Sue rates as one of the best dive sites in the country. The gallery below shows just a tiny selection of her photographs from her "underwater back garden". Please contact Sue of you are interest in other photographs from the area for any publications.

Note that this website only allows us to display extremely low resolution images; all the photographs displayed are available either as 35mm transparencies or as high-quality digital images with a minimum size of 2GB.

All images copyright Sue Scott

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LUMPSUCKER (Cyclopterus lumpus) The males of this curious fish are amongst the best parents of the animal world, guarding the eggs laid by the female for two months until they hatch.	GREATER PIPEFISH (Syngnathus acus) This strange fish lives amongst seaweed or eel-grass. It looks like an 'untwisted seahorse' and is, in fact, closely related.
SPINY SQUAT LOBSTER (Galathea strigosa) This strikingly coloured squat lobster is mostly seen by divers hiding deep in crevices, often hanging upside down from the roof. It comes out to feed at night.	NORTHERN SUNSTAR (Solaster endeca) Also called the purple sunstar, this species is confined to the north of Britain. It is one of the many colourful specialities in Loch Carron, trundling over the seabed in search of food.
SEA SLUG (Eubranchus species) Sea-slugs are shell-less snails (gastropods). They are colourful, but not always easy to distinguish.	CLOAK ANEMONE ON HERMIT CRAB The cloak anemone (Adamsia carciniopados) is only ever found living on the shell of a small hermit crab. Its stinging tentacles help to protect the crab, and in return the anemone feeds of waste food discarded by the crab.
KELP FOREST Few visitors see this underwater forest, which supports considerably more variety of life than any of the terrestrial forests on the shores of Loch Carron.	DOGFISH IN EGG
LESSER OCTOPUS (Eledone cirrhosa) Although we associate octopuses with warmer waters, this species does live in the distinctly cooler waters of Loch Carron, although it is shy and seldom seen.	BRITTLESTARS Brittlestars, like the common Ophiothrix fragilis, are adundant in many areas of rocky or gravelly seabed in Loch Carron.
DIVER WITH ANEMONE This image captures something of the excitement of diving in the clear waters of Loch Carron, as a diver inspects the colours of a dahlia anemone (Urticina felina) highlighted by his torch.	SEALOCH ANEMONE (Protanthea simplex) As its common name suggests, this handsome anemone in largely confined to Scottish sealochs, and is especially prolific on Sue's favourite dive site. Its tentacles spread up to 7cm across.

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