STONEY COVE
Sapcote Rd
Stoney Stanton
Leicester
LE9 4DW

Entry fee: £10 members, £15 non members
Membership: £20 for 2 years
Opening times: Mon - Fri: 8:30am – 4pm, Sat - Sun: 7am – 4pm
Night dives: 1st & 3rd Wednesday of the month

Stoney Cove has been used as a diver training location since 1978 and is probably the best known inland training site in the world. It can be found in Stoney Stanton, a little village between the M1 and M69 just south of Leicester. We run all of our PADI Advanced Open Water Courses and most of our PADI Speciality Courses there.
There are many under water attractions to be discovered at this fantastic inland dive site. You have the Viscount aircraft cockpit and the Nautilus submarine sitting at around 6m. If you look closely you will find some large perch underneath the viscount so don’t forget your dive lights.
Just beyond the Viscount you will find a drop off wall which will take you down to the 22 metre section. Here you will find some more underwater attractions including a Wessex helicopter, a Land Rover, a coach and the biggest inland shipwreck in the UK…. The Stanegarth!
The Stanegarth is a 20 metre tug boat found in the centre of the 22 metre section and is often occupied by a large pike or two. There are a number of entry and exit points along the stretch of this vessel making it an ideal location for the PADI Wreck Diver Course and penetration training.
At the rear of the Viscount cockpit you will find the quarry road which leads down to the 36 metre area. We use this road to conduct the Deep Dive of the Advanced Open Water Course as you can keep a visual reference with the road throughout the dive and easily stop at any time narcosis sets in.
At the bottom of the road to the right hand side you will find the Hydro Box which is basically a square metal box with a hole in the top. You will usually find a selection of gnomes placed down there……. It’s a diver thing! To dive at this depth you will need to be certified as a PADI Deep Diver or have Technical Diver training.
Over on the far west side of Stoney Cove you will find a 22 metre shelf where there lies a light aircraft covered in perch. The visibility over this side of the lake is normally very good as you don’t tend to get many divers over there.
If you then follow the wall south you will eventually reach an old wooden boat laying at an angle against the wall. Here too you will find a number of perch as well as many crayfish scuttling about.