For the past six months, Wessex Archaeology has been commissioned by English Heritage to work with the diving community to create an underwater Dive Trail for the wreck of the Iona II off Lundy Island. The final contribution of the diving community was to test the dive trail interpretation materials in the field.
 
On Saturday 17th May, eight divers from the Ilfracombe and North Devon Sub Aqua Club were taken out to the Iona II wreck site to put the four themed underwater guides and four themed information booklets through their paces. And just to make sure that the Dive Trail was the best it could be, a group of seven divers from Severnside Sub Aqua Club was taken out to the wreck on Sunday 1st June.  On both occasions there was a mixture of divers who were familiar with the wreck site and divers for whom this was a new experience.
 
On both days, the divers’ feedback was overwhelmingly positive with a few helpful tips to make the guides more user-friendly. Mike Tickle, of Ilfracombe and North Devon SAC, previously had four failed attempts to find the wreck site, but with the aid of the navigation information in the underwater guide, he found it first time!
 
 “The underwater guide was very good. Everything was exactly where the guide said it was going to be. The visibility was fairly poor so that would certainly help somebody who wasn’t familiar with the wreck find their way around.” Richard Holden, Severnside SAC.
 
Many of the divers said that diving the Iona II was more enjoyable because they could understand the layout of the whole wreck site and had a new appreciation for the history of the vessel.
 
Despite having extensive experience of the Iona II, Martin Davis of Ilfracombe and North Devon SAC said that he learnt new things about the wreck because of the Dive Trail. A Severnside SAC diver also commented on the photographic monitoring scheme “A great idea as it makes us feel part of a large project and able to contribute.”
 
The finishing touches are now being put on the Iona II Dive Trail in preparation for the launch on 14th June at the Lundy Splash In.