THE town of Dunluce on the Antrim coastline could be home to a mass grave of up to 200 Spanish Armada sailors.
In 1588 many of the warships of the Spanish Armada foundered off the coast of Ireland, after being defeated both by the weather and Elizabeth I’s navy.
The rout of the Armada was seen as a great Protestant victory, with far-reaching implications for Europe, Britain — and Ireland.
Some two dozen of Prince Philip of Spain’s ships foundered along the jagged northerly and westerly coastlines of Ireland.
The biggest loss was from the fifty gun galley La Girona which was wrecked off Lacada point in Co. Antrim — it was attempting to reach Scotland. Of the 1,300 on board, only nine survived. Some 260 bodies were washed ashore.
Now a team of Archaeologists from Stormont's Department of the Environment is to carry out a survey in the area of Dunluce, where it is believed many victims of the shipwreck may have been buried.
According to local legend an ancient graveyard near the mediaeval Dunluce Castle was used to give a Christian burial to some of the sailors.
The graveyard surrounds the ruins of St Cuthbert's, a church dating back to the 13th century. The DoE will also try to ascertain who else might be buried in the graveyard, throwing light on the history of the area.
Andrew Gault, one of the DoE archaeologists working on the project, told UTV: “We are hoping to do some further investigation in the future using geophysical survey, which is a non-destructive non-intrusive technique, to see whether there is evidence of actually a big burial cut, a big grave cut in that area.
"That will help to firm up exactly whether there is a Spanish Armada era grave in that location."
