MEMNON

Best months: Jul–Sep

Protected Area

East of Start Point

Why dive here

With 176+ marine species recorded in the area - including blue sharks, dolphins, dwarf minke whales, humpback whales and ocean sunfish (mola mola) - MEMNON offers some of Cornwall & Devon's richest wreck diving. Water ranges 10-18°C, warmest July, August, September.

Best timeJul–Sep

WetsuitA 5mm wetsuit

Marine lifeBlue Sharks, Dolphins, Dwarf Minke Whales, Humpback Whales and Ocean Sunfish (Mola Mola) · 176+ species recorded

Water10-18°C · warmest July, August, September

CharacterWreck dive · max 45m

StandoutExceptional marine biodiversity

The Memnon is a proper deep dive, sitting at 45 metres off Portland. She’s a big steamship, torpedoed in 1917, and her sheer scale is what gets us every time. You descend onto this massive structure, and it’s a stark reminder of the war. We love exploring the bow, which is still largely intact, and you can really get a sense of her original lines. Visibility here can be a bit of a lottery, as it often is in the UK, but when it’s good, the light penetrating that deep really illuminates the wreck’s details. Keep an eye out for conger eels – they absolutely love the Memnon. We've seen some absolute monsters lurking in her holds. Our favourite time to dive her is on a slack tide, obviously, but really early in the morning before other boats stir up the sediment can make a real difference to the visibility down there. This isn’t one for the faint-hearted, nor for anyone new to deep wreck diving, but if you’ve got the experience and the gas, the Memnon delivers a powerful dive.