wreck

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HMS RAMILLIES

The HMS Ramillies, off Bolt Tail, isn't your typical wreck dive. Forget neatly preserved hulls; this site is a scatter of history. She went down in a hurricane back in 1760, and the seabed now holds her broken timbers, iron ballast, and scattered cannon. We love how the story of that night feels palpable, even with just these fragments. It’s a shallow dive, around 10 meters, so you get plenty of bottom time to really comb through the debris field. We’ve spent hours here, meticulously sifting through the remains, imagining the chaos. Look closely, and you’ll spot cannonballs nestled amongst the rocks, often with small velvet crabs scuttling over them. The timbers themselves are heavily encrusted with dead man’s fingers and hydroids, providing shelter for blennies and gobies. Our favourite find is always a particularly gnarled section of hull, where you can almost feel the grain of the ancient oak. It’s a site for the patient diver, the one who enjoys a treasure hunt and a real connection to maritime history, rather than just swimming through a cavernous wreck. We’d suggest a calm day; visibility can be a bit variable here, but when it’s good, the details really pop.