Could the mystery over a 300-year-old shipwreck off Cornwall soon be solved?

A mystery surrounding a 300-year-old shipwreck off Cornwall and where its sailors were laid to rest could be a step closer to being solved by archaeologists.

In November 1721, 207 sailors lost their lives in a powerful storm when the Royal Anne hit rocks and sank at Lizard Point.

Only three people survived by clinging to wreckage of the military transport galley and among the dead was Lord Belhaven, the newly appointed Governor of Barbados.

The wreck was found close inshore near Lizard Point by divers in the 1970s, who first located two guns, but its identity was only confirmed in the 1990s by the discovery of some silver cutlery with the Belhaven family crest.

It is believed that those who died were buried - as was customary with drowned seamen at the time - in unconsecrated ground just west of Lizard Point at Pistil Meadow.

According to folklore, nearby residents went to bury the bodies but could not complete the task within a day.

When they returned the following morning, a pack of dogs is said to have got there first and scavenged the bodies.

To this day it is said that dogs cower when passing through the meadow - perhaps as an act of shame at the actions of their ancestors.

Recent surveys have located a number of anomalies which could indicate mass graves. However, these do not appear to tally with writings in the 1850s, that stated low irregular mounds chequered the surface of the field.

Now, the National Trust has teamed up with archaeologists from Bournemouth University, the Maritime Archaeological Sea Trust and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Maritime Archaeology Society to survey the site.

The Trust is working on plans for a limited excavation next summer and it is hoped that any discoveries may allow it to be given legal protection as a grave.