Spanish Head is a promontory on the southwestern coast of the

Isle of Man The Isle of Man ( , also ), or Mann ( ), is a self-governing British Crown Dependency in the Irish Sea, between Great Britain and Ireland. As head of state, Charles III holds the title Lord of Mann and is represented by a Lieutenant Govern ...

, rising over 100 m from sea level. The island of the

Calf of Man Calf of Man ( ) is a island, off the southwest coast of the Isle of Man. It is separated from the Isle of Man by a narrow stretch of water called the Calf Sound. Like the nearby rocky islets of Chicken Rock and Kitterland, it is part of th ...

lies to the southwest of the head, separated from it by the

Calf Sound Calf Sound () is a body of water which separates the Calf of Man island from the mainland of the Isle of Man. The sound - technically a strait - is about 700 yards in width, and contains the small islet of Kitterland, which is home to a large co ...

. The name of the promontory originates from the Manx name for the type of rock in the area, based on the Manx word "speeiney" meaning "bark", "strip" or "peel" reflecting the natural fissility of the

slate Slate is a fine-grained, foliated, homogeneous, metamorphic rock derived from an original shale-type sedimentary rock composed of clay or volcanic ash through low-grade, regional metamorphism. It is the finest-grained foliated metamorphic ro ...

on the promontory. The Manx word for "Spain" is a similar word "Spaainey" which led to a later folk tale linking the name to a myth of a ship from the

Spanish Armada The Spanish Armada (often known as Invincible Armada, or the Enterprise of England, ) was a Spanish fleet that sailed from Lisbon in late May 1588, commanded by Alonso de Guzmán, Duke of Medina Sidonia, an aristocrat without previous naval ...

becoming wrecked in the area, though there is no archaeological evidence, or written accounts to support such a wreck, and the route of the Armada did not pass through the Irish Sea.

External links

Government photograph of the cliffs
* Headlands of the Isle of Man {{IsleofMan-geo-stub