Not on anything that is part of the Balearic historic heritage: Article 25 of the islands' heritage law bans metal detectors there, except for research teams with the island council's permission.
An ordinary beach is not automatically heritage, but towns set their own beach rules, and anything valuable you find has to be handed in if the owner is not there.
The Balearic heritage law, Ley 12/1998, deals with detectors in one sentence:
“Se prohíbe la utilización de detectores de metales en los bienes integrantes del patrimonio histórico de las Illes Balears, con la excepción de los equipos investigadores que soliciten y obtengan el permiso pertinente del consejo insular correspondiente.”
In plain English: detectors are banned on the islands' heritage, and only research teams can get permission, from the island council, which on Mallorca is the Consell de Mallorca. There is no permit for a hobby detectorist.
The law does not mention beaches. In Spain they are state public land, so a beach is not heritage just by being a beach. A stretch that is catalogued as an archaeological site, on land or underwater, is a different matter, and there are such stretches on the islands' coasts.
Towns add their own rules on what is allowed on their beaches. Which ones apply this year is a question for the town hall (Ajuntament), not for this page.
Spanish civil law, Article 615 of the Civil Code, says whoever finds something must return it to the owner, or hand it in at the town hall if the owner is unknown. In Palma that is the Oficina d'Objectes Trobats.
That is what the March 2025 case in Palma was about. A hobby detectorist had found jewellery on the city's beaches in 2023 and sold it to pawn shops instead of handing it in. The court fined him 540 euros and ordered him to pay about 5,300 euros to the lost-property office. He was convicted for selling what he found, not for detecting.
Several people on the island search for lost rings. Retrievly is one more place to post: a platform that connects people who have lost a ring in the sand with metal detectorists nearby, and posting is free. Name the beach when you post, because whoever goes has to know whether that stretch is protected, and a local searcher knows that faster than you do.
What to do in the first minutes, and the beaches it usually happens on, is on Lost a ring on a beach in Mallorca.
This is not legal advice, and the rules change. The official sources are Ley 12/1998, Article 25, on boe.es, the Consell de Mallorca, and the beach bylaw of the town in question.
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Kenny built Retrievly. He has snorkelled the Danube for years and keeps bringing up things that belong to other people: wallets with the ID still in them, phones, keys. That is where Retrievly came from.
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