Coral Lagoon

Id-Dragunara

Useful Information

Location:	Triq Dahlet Ix-Xmajjar (114), Mellieħa, Malta At the northern end of Highway 114, free car parkm 250 m/5 minutes hike. (35.9978230, 14.3677703)
Open:	no restrictions. [2025]
Fee:	free. [2025]
Classification:	Collapse Doline Collapsed Cave Karst Cave Blowhole
Light:	n/a
Dimension:
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Coral Lagoon, Tel: +356-.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Description

The Coral Lagoon is a collapse doline, in other parts of the world it would probably be called a blue hole or a cenote, here it is called a lagoon. But actually it’s simply a collapsed part of a cave, and as this cave is at sea level, the collapse doline as well as the cave contains seawater. The spectacular doline is located on the northernmost point of the island Malta, the L-Aħrax tal-Mellieħa. L-Aħrax means "harsh rock", and actually this whole northern end of the island belongs to the city Mellieħa. The harsh rocks are coral limestones, which have a rather sharp-edged surface and form steep cliffs around the peninsula. The hike is short, but good shoes are strongly recommended.

The doline is named by the english name Coral Lagoon, there seems to be no Maltese version of the name. It is also named Id-Dragunara (Dragonara Lagoon). There is actually a cave, which connects the doline to the sea, which is located in the southeast corner. The cave is known as Coral Cave or as Dragonara Cave.

The cave seems to have formed along a crack ore even a fracture zone which runs nortwest to southeast. The doline is elliptical, 27 m long and 14 m wide, 6 m high on the western side and 5 m high on the eatern. The main axis follows this direction, and the cave which connects the lagoon with the sea is the elongation of this main axis. And if you have a look on the satellite images, there are two elongated structures on the opposite end of this axis. It seems though not connected by a cave, the zone of weakness created the Slugs Bay which is a sort of natural pool, or in speleological terms a collapsed cave.

This site is, despite its remote location on the tip of a peninsula, pretty easy to visit. Just take Highway 1 and at the roundabout turn right towards L-Armier. If you follow this road 114 to its northernmost point at the campsite, there is a free car park. From here it’s an easy 250 m/5 minutes hike. Alternatively you can visit the lagoon by boat, inflatable boats as well as kayaks are small enough to enter through the cave. Some even arrive with paddleboards.

And then there is the group of "suicide jumpers" which jump into the lagoon from the rim. That’s actually possible and done all the time. Nevertheless, it requires that you know how to jump from such a height, select the spot where you jump carefully, and be aware that the most difficult part is to get back from the lagoon. To do this, you have to swim out through the cave and find a place where you can climb the cliff. This is only possible during good weather, if there is good weather but strong wind the waves in the sea might be quite dangerous and smash you on the cliff. So while this jumping is done frequently, there were numerous heavy and even deadly accidents in the last years. Jumping is still permitted, but we strongly advise against it. Its seems there are some blowholes between the lagoon and the cliff, so we recommend looking for blowholes if the waves are strong enough instead of jumping.