The Torrey Canyon
Seven Stones reef, off Land's End, Cornwall
In March 1967 the supertanker Torrey Canyon ran onto the Seven Stones reef between Land's End and Scilly. Around 100,000 tonnes of crude oil poured into the sea, coating beaches in Cornwall and France.
Read the full story, see it on the map, get directions and find what else is nearby in the free Hidden Britain Atlas map.
- When
- 18 March 1967
- Where
- 50.0400, -6.0800
- Group
- Shipwrecks
Visiting
The reef lies far out to sea. Look out from Land's End on a clear day.

Blood and Gold
Sixteen true stories of mutiny, mercy, treasure and the gallows from the Golden Age of Piracy: Henry Every, Bartholomew “Black Bart” Roberts, Edward England, Howell Davis, Christopher Moody, Anne Bonny, Mary Read, Charles Vane, Benjamin Hornigold, Blackbeard, Stede Bonnet, Israel Hands, Calico Jack, Edward Low, Captain William Kidd and Samuel “Black Sam” Bellamy. Where the record is uncertain, the book says so.
Nearby mysteries
- LyonesseLegend · Land's End, Cornwall · 16 miles away
- Perkin WarbeckPlot · Whitesand Bay, Cornwall · 17 miles away
- The SS SchillerShipwreck · Retarrier Ledges, Isles of Scilly · 19 miles away
- Sir Cloudesley Shovell's FleetShipwreck · Isles of Scilly · 20 miles away
- The Logan RockHill figure · Treen, near Porthcurno, Cornwall · 20 miles away
- Boscawen-UnAncient monument · Near St Buryan, Cornwall · 21 miles away