Royal Beach is the pocket beach hidden immediately south of Mornington Pier, walled in by red sandstone bluffs and reached by a scrambly track at the end of Canterbury Street. The Scuba Doctor lists it as a shore dive to about 10 m and calls it a good beginner's dive, and that is a fair description: a wide rubble and rock-strewn seafloor slopes gently away from the beach, giving plenty of small-scale structure without any depth, current or navigation problems. At low tide the whole inner section is an exposed rock and reef flat with deep water only beyond the rocks, so it is a high-tide dive.

Underwater the rubble is a nursery for small fish and crustaceans – juvenile leatherjackets, hulafish, magpie perch, moonlighters, shrimp and hermit crabs – and the larger rocks hide Maori octopus (one features in the source's photograph), decorator crabs and abalone. Toward Schnapper Point the boulders grow bigger and the seagrass-covered rock of the point reef takes over, so a diver who swims north joins the western reef of the Mornington Pier dive, which makes an attractive one-way route in calm weather: enter at Royal Beach, round the point, and exit at the pier ladders. Rays, giant cuttlefish in winter and squid at dusk are all likely.

The site's advantages are quiet and shelter from the pier's crowds and boat channel; its disadvantages are limited parking, the scramble down and the tide dependence. It suits newly certified divers wanting an easy reef rather than a pier, snorkellers at high tide, and photographers after macro life in shallow, bright water. It is not a place for groups or for anyone who wants more than 10 m.

From Mornington Main Street head west to the Esplanade and turn into Canterbury Street; the beach lies opposite its end, about 550 m south of Mornington Pier. Park on Canterbury Street or the Esplanade (limited) and take the short but scrambly sloped track down to the sand – a 50 m carry, awkward with twin tanks. Enter from the beach at high tide, when there is water over the inner rock flat; at low tide a continuous reef flat is exposed and you must wade to the outer rocks before there is diveable depth.

Exit the same way, or in calm water swim north around Schnapper Point to the pier ladders.

Royal Beach faces west-north-west and is open to westerly and north-westerly winds, which put a shore break on the rock flat and make the scramble entry slippery; it is partly sheltered from southerlies by Schnapper Point. Dive on southerly through easterly winds at or near high tide, when the inner reef flat is covered and entry is straightforward. No current.

Visibility is generally similar to the pier next door and improves in winter. Boat traffic from Mornington Harbour rounds Schnapper Point close inshore, so tow a flag.

Enter at high tide, cross the rubble flat at 1–2 m and descend where the bottom drops beyond the rocks, then work north toward Schnapper Point with the shore on your right through boulders and rubble in 5–8 m, deepening to 10 m off the point. Turn at half gas, return along the same line slightly further out, and surface off the beach.

No regular operator; independent divers and occasional Mornington-based training groups using it as a quieter alternative to the pier.