The mystery surrounding a ship which sank off the Scottish coast more than three hundred years ago may have been solved by a group of amateur historians.

Since the 17th Century the true reason why the vessel, which has lain off the west coast, made the journey has eluded historians.

Until now they had no idea where it came from, what it was doing in those waters or even when it had sunk. 

But a group of experts now believe she was a Dutch vessel carrying a cargo of high-powered guns sent to attack Mingary Castle in the Sound of Mull.

Phil Richards, a diver from Southampton, stumbled across five cannons resting on the seabed during an expedition in the Ardnamurchan two years ago.

He said: "It was more luck than judgement.  A lot of people dive for years looking for this kind of thing.  I wanted to find out more about this ship.  I was convinced it held an interesting story."

Following this, local historian Nicholas Maclean-Britsol ploughed through mountains of historical documents to uncover the truth about the mystery ship.

He said "At one time Mull would have been as heavily populated as the Isle of Wight, and the waterway as busy as the Solent.  There are a number of wrecks near here because there was so much traffic in these waters."

Eventually his research led him to discover a 350 year old diary by John Weir, a Puritan who was imprisioned in the castle by its owner, the Earl of Argyll, a parliamentarian.

He added "The diary talks of the Dutch ship being lost int he waters.  It seems that the ship had been sent by the king to attack the castle in 1644.  This is the best evidence we are likely to find and the most likely explanation for what happened."

There are thousands of wrecks off the coasts of Britain but only seven in Scotland are designated under the Protection of Wrecks Act 1973.

The only official assessor of them is the Archaeological Diving Unit based at St Andrews University.  Dr Colin Martin, a retired maritime archaeologist from the unit, said the wreck was "very significant".

From The Scotsman March 27 2003