A paddle out to an island that reputedly had human bones form
The Spanish Armada, and then an unplanned paddle to the cliffs of the Slieve Tooey.
What a tale we have to tell
............Firstly, an unplanned day off due to horrendous weather, having a drive around, and looking for the next paddle, we ended up at Rossbeg nr
Ardara.
Arriving around 10.30pm, and looking for somewhere to overnight, we opted to stay here, even though it said 'No overnight parking.' There seems no escape from that one. I noticed a car parked up with some inside (
Blue car in the video) and got chatting to one of the Locals, and it was raining, and he invites me in. So after all the usual questions, where you from, what you doing here etc,
Martin tells me a VERY interesting tale, his exact words "See that island out there? well, I tell not one word of a lie, if you paddle out there tomorrow you will see human skeletons." Now bear in mind it was late, quite stormy, and Martin was quite pissed on Cidre, you can imagine I was somewhat skeptical. Martin picked up on this, and swore it was true, insisting they were from the
Spanish Armada ship, that was wrecked here. Now me being a
Scuba Diver, knew all about these wrecks, but have always thought the tales exaggerated somewhat. I knew for a fact that one had wrecked nr
Giant's Causeway, La
Girona, and one was supposedly in
Tobermory Bay on
Mull,
San Juan de Sicilia, and reports of wreckage in
Shetland and
Orkney, but surely if what Martin said was true, it would be famous, and I'd have heard of it? I told
Matt, first thing in the morning, and he laughed it off, and laughed at me. I told him that Martin was VERY convincing, and he swore it was true. So, I decided to get a second opinion, the
Skipper of the charter boat was asked, and he CONFIRMED everything Martin had said, adding that he had informed the
Police,
Council, and
Dublin University, sending them a perfect human jawbone with a fine set of teeth in it, but, he said, because it's
Donegal, oop
North,
Bandit Country, they weren't interested. He also said he went out there once, and some 'Hippy types' had a full skeleton laid out on the beach, and he ordered them to put it back. Other locals were questioned, and all confirmed the tale. One even claiming they were his long lost relatives, and all the
Skeletons had their backs broken!!!! The wreck in question is the Duquesa
Santa Anna, it was on it's way back to
Scotland, sailing from
Killybegs in September 1588, coming ashore at Rossbeg. The Spanish Armada, took a leathering from
Drake's
Fleet, off
Plymouth, after his game of bowls.
The Armada scattered Eastwards up the
English Channel, and opted for the 'Safer' long way home around Scotland. Many tragedies and wreckings followed.
The Captain of the Duquesa Santa Anna, was
Capitan General Alfonso Perez de Guzman, maybe it was his thighbone we found? The whole situation is very sketchy, and the only reason the bones were found at all, was that they were uncovered by
Rabbits digging burrows, and no one knows how the Rabbits got there either? We continued on to the Slieve Tooey cliffs, which, by all accounts are one of the best paddles to be had in
Ireland. Catchpool1 has a video of it, and it is just superlative. We, unfortunately arrived, coinciding with a big swell, that caused hideous clapotis, and was very uncomfortable. I think we really need to do this paddle again in better weather.
- published: 11 Feb 2015
- views: 1471