Giant Shipwrecks of the North Coast

Jump aboard for a fascinating voyage towards Rathlin Island and along the Causeway Coast searching for historic shipwrecks. On your voyage, you'll visit the place where Spanish Armada vessel La Girona went down, as well as the wartime wreck sites of HMS Drake and HMS Brisk and of the cargo vessel S.S. Lugano. You'll finish your tour exploring the intact wreck of troop vessel S.S. Lochgarry, now laying upright off the coast of Rathlin. Meanwhile your guides will enthral you will tales of treasure, tragedy, lost loves, battles and destruction. You’ll hear about the modern wrecks of the World Wars as well as those of whiskey smuggling ships. The story of the Spanish Armada and its treasure is especially engrossing .  The Armada vessel, La Girona, is one of the most famous shipwrecks lying off this coast. On a fateful night in October 1588 she departed Donegal’s Killybegs harbour for Scotland following repairs to her rudder. Then she was blown off course by a gale and onto the rocks at Lacada Point near Dunluce. Of the 1300 people on board, just nine survived.  Your trip will also visit the site of World War 1 vessel HMS Drake, torpedoed by U-boat U79 on 2 October, 1917. On the same day, HMS Brisk entered Rathlin Sound and struck a mine that had aslo been laid by U79. The cargo vessel S.S. Lugano suffered a similar fate at the hands of the deadly U-boat. You'll finish your tour exploring the intact wreck of World War 11 troop vessel S.S. Lochgarry which sank in a gale off Torr Head while heading from Glasgow to pick up soldiers in Oban.  This unique experience will give you a whole new perspective on the beautiful - but sometimes deadly - Causeway Coast.

Portstewart