Armada Wreck at Portincross

When the Spanish Armada was dispersed by the combined efforts of the English fleet and poor weather in 1588 many were wrecked on the rocky coastlines around the west coast of Scotland. One galleon (whose name is now lost) was wrecked about quarter of a mile offshore from Portencross Castle in North Ayrshire in about ten fathoms of water. One local legend says that it was the spell of a local witch, Geils Buchanan, that brought about the sinking of the vessel. She is supposed to have stood on the headland as the ship passed, twirling her spindle, and as the thread grew the ship slipped under the waves. This is of course just a story, in fact at the time many local people in this part of Scotland openly supported the Spanish in their bid to invade England. King James VI however could not, even though he was still bitterly opposed to the English Queen, Elizabeth I (after all she had executed his mother, Mary Queen of Scots, just one year earlier!), he knew if Spain took England their eyes may then have turned north and he was forced grudgingly to side with his southern neighbour.

The position of the wreck was discovered in 1740 by Sir Archibald Grant and Captain Roe and with great difficulty they managed to raise ten bronze and ten iron cannon to the surface. These relics were sent to Dublin; all except one which Roe presented to the village of Portincross which was positioned near the castle.

Portincross is still a popular site for divers today but with there never being an official excavation undertaken it is difficult to determine if finds made by divers are from the Spanish Galleon or from the wreck of the 'Lady Margaret', which lies in close proximity to the remnants of the earlier vessel. The Lady Margaret was a fine vessel owned by Glasford & Co., Glasgow, which sank in 1770. It had been bound for Virginia with an expensive cargo on board when it was blown by a squall into the same rocks that had torn apart the Spanish ship 182 years earlier.