Spanish Armada Wrecks in Ireland

Remains of the 1588 Spanish Armada on the Irish coast. Storms drove Armada ships onto the western and northern shores as the fleet attempted to reach home waters by the northern route. They are archaeological sites, protected under Irish law as wrecks more than 100 years old.

1 wreckscope Irelanddepth range 40 m1 region

Santa Maria de la Rosa

1588

40 mKerry, Ireland

A boy called Giovanni was the one survivor. Vice Flagship of the Guipuzcoan squadron in the Spanish Armada of 1588, the Santa Maria de la Rosa was already battered by earlier fighting when she came into Blasket Sound to shelter behind Great Blasket Island. Once her anchor was lost she struck Stromboli Reef and went down at once. Sydney Wignall and Colin Martin found her again on 4 July 1968, and she became the first Armada wreck to be investigated on properly scientific lines; the hunt for her was also the first swimline search on a large scale anywhere in the British Isles. On flat shingle at 35-40 metres lie a mound of ballast stones, parts of the lower hull and the step of the main mast. A pewter plate bearing the word "matute" helped to identify two brothers among her crew. The site is protected for its archaeology, and permission is required.