Rill Cove Wreck
Marker: recorded wreck position (Date not recorded).
Key facts
| Name | Rill Cove Wreck | Wikidata label |
|---|---|---|
| Ship type | shipwreck | Wikidata P31 instance of |
| Sea / ocean | English Channel | Natural Earth marine areas (public domain), point-in-polygon |
| Nearest coast | England | official dataset |
| Position | 49.9759, -5.2406 | Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3) |
| Protected Wreck | List entry 1000046 | Historic England |
| Designated | 1976-02-13 | Historic England |
| Restricted area | 3.14 ha | Historic England |
| Grid reference | SW 67750 13450 | Historic England |
About the wreck
The Rill Cove Wreck is an underwater wreck of a 16th-century Spanish cargo ship lying off the coast of Rill Cove, west of Kynance Cove, in Cornwall, England, UK.
The remains of a cargo vessel were first found off Rill Cove, Cornwall in 1969. The site was designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act on 13 February 1976. The wreck is a Protected Wreck managed by Historic England.
This wreck has also been identified by some as the Lizard Silver Wreck, a celebrated 1619 wreck off nearby Lizard Point, but this is disputed.
Diving & visiting
This is a designated Protected Wreck under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973. Under the Act, diving on or otherwise interfering with the wreck inside its restricted area requires a licence; see the Historic England list entry for details.
The site consists of iron cannon, a wrought iron swivel gun, a banded breech-loading gun, and other wreck material including over 300 sixteenth century coins. A number of these coins were of Spanish origin, stamped with Philip II or Philip III, which date from 1555–98 and 1598-1603/5 respectively. The identity of the vessel is unknown but it is believed to be a Spanish cargo vessel that foundered around 1616.
The site was discovered by divers who were investigating a nearby modern wreck in 1969. The site has been frequently visited, with further artefacts being recovered. In 2013, a desk-based assessment was undertaken which involved assessing the significance of the site.
Location
- Recorded position: 49.9759, -5.2406 (Historic England Protected Wreck Sites, listed latitude/longitude (OGL v3); may be approximate)
- Sea / ocean: English Channel
- Nearest coast: England
Wreck positions on this site are for interest only and are not for navigation. Many wrecks are war graves or legally protected: never disturb human remains or remove artefacts, and check local law before diving.
Text adapted from the Wikipedia article Rill Cove Wreck (revision 1266413394), licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Changes: excerpted from the article lead section and section(s) “The wreck”, “Discovery and investigation”; condensed by selecting paragraphs; citations and formatting removed. No text added. This excerpt is available under the same licence.
Protected Wreck data © Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Wreck facts from Wikidata (CC0).
Nearby wrecks
- HMS Royal Anne Galley 3 km
- HMS Schiedam 1684 · 7 km
- U-1018 1945 · 8 km
- St Anthony 1527 · 9 km
- Loe Bar Wreck 10 km
- U-399 1945 · 11 km
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