North Malta
The walk down from the road is where this starts
Mellieħa Bay, Golden Bay, Għajn Tuffieħa and Ġnejna, Paradise Bay at Ċirkewwa, and the rocky shore at St Paul's Bay, Buġibba and Qawra.
Plenty does get found on this coast. A bay name by itself leaves a searcher almost nowhere, while the way you came down to the water tends to stay in your head. North Malta is a run of separate bays, each with one road in and one way onto the sand, so the approach is the part you can still describe once the spot itself has gone vague.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in north Malta with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the bay, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
A good share of what we are asked about here is a hire car key or a fob rather than a ring, because the car and the beach day arrive together. Whatever has gone, write down what it looks like and what it was attached to while that is still fresh.
Most of these bays have one way in
Nearly every bay here is reached by a single road and a single way down, and that works for you rather than against you. Ġnejna comes in past the village of Mġarr. Għajn Tuffieħa can be got at only by a steep flight of steps or a gravel track. Anchor Bay is down a steep slope. Name the way you came in and where it left you once you were down. That much is often enough to start on, before a word is said about the loss itself.
After that we want the item described, the rough hour, whether any of it happened in the water, and a pin if your phone will give you one. Guesses are welcome so long as they are labelled as guesses. And if the loss is only minutes old, do not walk off yet: a shoe or a bag dropped where your feet are keeps the one thing that cannot be put back later.
The bays and towns on this page
- Mellieħa
- Mellieħa Bay, also known as Għadira Bay
- The Għadira wetland behind Mellieħa Bay
- Golden Bay
- Għajn Tuffieħa
- The steps down to Għajn Tuffieħa
- Manikata
- Ġnejna Bay
- The flat rock beside Ġnejna Bay
- Mġarr
- Paradise Bay
- Ċirkewwa
- The Gozo ferry at Ċirkewwa
- The car parks at Ċirkewwa
- Armier Bay
- Little Armier
- Anchor Bay
- St Paul's Bay
- Simar in the Pwales Valley at Xemxija
- Buġibba
- The perched beach at Buġibba
- Qawra
- Qawra Point
Sand, steps, rock and a ferry quay
Each of these is a different piece of ground with a different way onto it.
Mellieħa Bay
A sheltered beach between two headlands in the north of the island, answering to L-Għadira as readily as to Mellieħa Bay, so the same afternoon can be written up under either name. Its sand has a low gradient slope, the water over it is clear and shallow, and parts of the bay are set aside for water sports and windsurfing. An old castle is perched on one side and the old village of Mellieħa high on the other. Across the road from the sand lies Għadira, a brackish lake and saltmarsh where people come to watch migrating birds.
Golden Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa
Golden Bay is set among countryside and relatively undeveloped, with easy access onto the sand and water sports off it running from jet skiing and paragliding to banana boat rides. Għajn Tuffieħa is the next bay along, unspoilt and undeveloped, below hills and an unusually shaped promontory, its beach reached only down a steep flight of steps or by a gravel track.
Ġnejna Bay
Ġnejna lies close to the rural village of Mġarr, and being less crowded than Golden Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa it gives people the option of a quieter spot on the beach. A headland on the west side of Għajn Tuffieħa separates that bay from this one, and beside the right hand side of the main sandy beach runs a stretch of flat rock used for sunbathing instead of sand.
Paradise Bay, Ċirkewwa and Armier
Paradise Bay is a sandy beach at the northern tip of the island, close to where the Gozo ferry berths, with a second sandy beach beside it and a view across to Comino and its tower. On the map record it carries the Maltese name Ir-Ramla taċ-Ċirkewwa. At Armier the beach follows the shore of an open bay facing Comino and Gozo, and Little Armier sits next to it with rock either side. A ferry crossing wants a line too.
St Paul's Bay
St Paul's Bay started life as a small fishing village, and its coastline opens onto a vista across to St Paul's Island. At Xemxija, Simar is a wetland in the Pwales Valley where herons and egrets stop on migration. A coastline walk carries on round to Qawra Point, long but mostly level and easy, which is how an evening stroll turns into far more ground than anybody meant to cover.
Buġibba and Qawra
The shore here is rocky. Flat rocks give people somewhere to sunbathe, there are access points every so often for swimmers, and the water off them is deep, clean and clear. The sandy exception is the perched beach at Buġibba, in Dawret il-Gżejjer, created artificially over a rocky surface with the foreshore left in its original state. Name the access point you used and the nearest thing on land.
The practical side of it
No form to fill in
Type it, record it as a voice note, or send three lines and a picture. It all arrives in the same place, and we ask for the gaps one at a time rather than sending you a list.
Getting a detectorist to that bay
When the ground is clear enough to work with, we look for somebody able to reach it. What that person opens is your own pin and your own photographs.
Hire cars and keys
If what has gone is the key to a hire car, say so in the first line and name the company. That side of it has to be handled alongside the search, not after it.
Costs, before anything is booked
You hear the cost first and decide afterwards. Saying no at that point stops it there, with nothing set in motion.
An old loss is still worth sending
A message about last summer is not wasted. What counts is how well the spot can still be described.
Underfoot and underwater
Sand, rock, steps and depth, bay by bay.
Where the water gets deep
At Mellieħa Bay the sand has a low gradient slope and the water over it is clear and shallow. Off Buġibba and Qawra the water is deep, and swimmers go in from access points along the flat rock. Name which of the two you were in, because they are not searched the same way.
A north-west wind at Golden Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa
Golden Bay and Għajn Tuffieħa are both generally safe for swimming but prone to strong currents when the wind is to the north-west. If you remember a red flag up that day, put it in the message.
Getting down to the sand at all
Għajn Tuffieħa can only be reached down a steep flight of steps or by a gravel track, and a steep slope leads down to the water at Anchor Bay. Those approaches are worth a line of their own, because something can leave a pocket on a slope and end up nowhere near where you were heading.
Questions about north Malta
A car key fob went missing around the Gozo ferry at Ċirkewwa.
Crossing times help, if you have them, because a ferry day splits cleanly into before and after. Paradise Bay sits at the northern tip of the island, a short way from where the Gozo ferry berths, so one afternoon runs from tarmac to sand and back. Give us the order you did things in, and where the fob was carried.
My phone is somewhere on the sand at Mellieħa Bay.
How it was being carried matters more than which phone it is. In a hand, in a pocket, or down in a bag: start there. Mellieħa Bay is a sheltered beach between two headlands, and its sand has a low gradient slope running into clear, shallow water, so the other question is how far down that slope you had got. An old castle stands perched on one side of the bay and the old village of Mellieħa high on the other, and saying which you were nearer cuts it down.
Something came off on the way down to Għajn Tuffieħa.
That is good news as these things go. A flight of steps can be walked end to end; a beach cannot. Għajn Tuffieħa can only be reached down a steep flight of steps or by a gravel track, so tell us which you used and how far down you had got.
An Oura ring went while I was swimming off the rocks at Qawra.
An Oura ring is handled like any other band. Say which finger and which hand it sat on, and what it looks like close up. The shore at Buġibba and Qawra is rocky, with access points every so often for swimmers, and the water off them is deep. Out where your feet were nowhere near the bottom, that is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first. Close in by the access point is another matter.
We were on the rock at Ġnejna rather than the sand. Does that help?
Quite a lot, yes. Beside the right hand side of the main sandy beach at Ġnejna Bay runs a stretch of flat rock that people use when they want to avoid the sand, and a long, somewhat rough walk along that side reaches an area popular with the more adventurous bathers. Name the one you had settled on.
My glasses went between the bar and the water at Buġibba.
Frames are a normal thing to ask us about. The perched beach at Buġibba is a man made stretch of sand laid over the existing rock, with platforms giving direct access between the sandy part and the sea, so the surface underfoot changes within a few steps. Tell us whether you crossed onto the sand, and which way you were walking.
We fly home tomorrow. Is it too late to bother?
No. Write now and leave us a way to reach you once you are home. The pin, the photographs and most of what else gets asked for answer just as well from your own kitchen as from the hotel.
North Malta
Name the bay and go from there
WhatsApp, in your own words.
The bay, the item and roughly when it went will do for a first message. Everything else gets asked for afterwards, at whatever pace suits the rest of your day.