Erscotts Hole

Erscotts Hole is a submerged volcanic cavern system on Lord Howe Island's western lagoon fringe, its passages penetrating deep into the basalt substrate and opening into air-filled chambers lit by electric blue shafts of sunlight. The cavern walls are encrusted in dense communities of tunicates, encrusting sponges, and filter-feeding hydroids that thrive in the still, sediment-free cave water, while schools of bigeye and cardinalfish fill the chambers with a living phosphorescent haze. For divers who want to experience Lord Howe's endemic species in dramatic architectural settings without the full exposure of the outer pinnacles, Erscotts Hole is the island's most sheltered and most intimate dive.