How the Armada got to Scotland

How could a ship from the Spanish Armada end up wrecked off the coast of north-west Scotland? The answer is that after being harassed by English ships as they passed up the Channel, Philip II's great invasion fleet of 1588 was caught in a storm, which carried it into the North Sea and along the east coast of Britain. The 130 ships then tried to follow a Scandinavian trade route by turning west over the north of Scotland in an attempt to take them out into the Atlantic. From there they attempted to complete a long anti-clockwise route around the British Isles and back to Spain. Unfortunately for the Spanish, storms blew many of the ships back onto the coasts of Scotland and Ireland, where many perished.

According to specialist Dr Felipe Fernandez Armesto, of Queen's University, London, it is one of the great myths of English history that the Armada was defeated in a great naval battle led by Francis Drake. In fact, he says, 'Drake played very little part in the Armada campaign. He spent most of it gadding around looking for prizes and feathering his own nest and left most the fighting to his fellow commanders. His role was negligible.'

The English fleet was actually commanded by Lord Howard of Effingham. He pursued the Armada up towards the Netherlands, where it was meant to be meeting up with an invasion army before transporting it across to England. The English had used virtually all their ammunition against the Spanish ships by the time they anchored off Gravelines, in modern Belgium. It was here on the evening of 7 August that the Armada was forced to break anchor as a result of the famous attack by English fireships.

Despite all their efforts, though, the English had managed to sink just one Spanish ship. The real damage to the Armada was to be done by the weather.

From 9 August onwards, increasing winds blew the Spanish ships further and further into the North Sea. The terrible storm that erupted on 13 August scattered both the English and the Spanish fleets; indeed, the English fleet suffered so badly that many people thought the Armada must have been successful. But in the age of sail, there was no way back down the Channel for the Spanish. Instead, they headed north, seeking out the long route back to Spain.

Over the next few months, many ships – about two thirds of the 130 in the Armada – did make it back. But many others were lost in further storms off the coasts of Scotland and Ireland. One vessel was wrecked off the Shetlands; another found safe harbour for a while at Mull. More than 25 are known to have floundered off the Irish coast. Those sailors who made it ashore were often killed by the English militia.

The ship sunk off the Scottish coast at Kinlochbervie may have been seeking shelter, but lost its way in the atrocious conditions, lashed by the tail end of an Atlantic hurricane. Naval charts at the time were rudimentary; many rocks and treacherous stretches of water would not even have been marked. One of the finds raised from the seabed at Kinlochbervie was a sounding weight, used to measure the depth of water. It may have been one of the last items used by the crew before their vessel was dashed against the rocks and sunk.