Chimney

The Chimney is one of the British Virgin Islands' most distinctive and memorable beginner dive sites — a unique geological feature near Norman Island whose name describes both its physical form and the dramatic diving experience it creates. Norman Island, the largest uninhabited island in the BVI, is steeped in local legend as the supposed inspiration for Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island, and its waters contain some of the finest snorkeling and diving in the British Virgin Islands. The Chimney is a narrow chimney-shaped rock formation that descends from the surface and provides a spectacular swim-through experience in warm, crystal-clear Caribbean water. The passage is wide enough to swim through comfortably with proper buoyancy control, and the light quality inside the chimney — sunlight filtered through the vertical shaft above, illuminating the coral-encrusted walls in refracted blue-green light — creates one of the most photogenic and aesthetically beautiful dive experiences in the BVI. The walls of the Chimney and surrounding reef are colonized by encrusting corals, sponges, and sea fans that provide habitat for the typical BVI reef fish community. Squirrelfish and soldierfish occupy the shadowed recesses of the chimney interior. Outside the formation the reef extends to comfortable beginner depths with excellent visibility typical of Norman Island's calm, protected waters. The beginner rating makes this an ideal site for newly certified divers visiting the BVI on sailing or dive charter trips, and the dramatic swim-through feature ensures that even more experienced divers find the site thoroughly enjoyable and endlessly photogenic.