How We Went Diving In Underwater Prison In Rummu, Estonia

Murru prison in Estonia (established in 1930) is a very unusual place. The prisoners had to work in the quarry and it was notorious for it's human rights infringements

When Estonia regained independence, times changed and the works at the quarry stopped filling up the area with water

So there are lamp posts, barbed wire, mining equipment and a whole forest all at the bottom, which make for an interesting visit for divers

When arriving to Rummu, nothing indicates there is the quarry somewhere in the city, only noticing the sign "no swimming" you get suspicious, but I see at least ten people in the water

Right next to the beach there is a place you can climb, roughly 70 m tall

There are no safety nets or margins at the top, so climbing is at your own risk

But there is a special group of people who enjoy this place the most and those are divers

First we go to the underwater houses and you can even swim inside, but that can get claustrophobic and I try to stay away

It is actually extremely dangerous to do so, as I saw barbed wire, lamp posts and concrete sheets under water

The trees are grown over with algae, so seem soft, but many have clams growing over, and you can get cut

There are also abandoned objects underwater - tires, pots and other things

Sadly, the visibility is only about 5 m, so we don't see as much as we had hoped for

The depth isn't much, deepest is about 13m, but we mostly spend our time at 6-9m depth

I'd say Rummu is an interesting place to visit - there aren't many places where you can grill sausages in the territory of a former prison!

But you should keep in mind that accidents and even deaths have happened here, and the last one was just a few days before we visited

Rummu remains a place that you visit on your own risk. But every day there are dozens of people who choose to do so