Stand still. A ring that slips off on a beach stays within a few steps of where it came off, and usually it is under your feet.
Mallorca is on your side in one way: the Mediterranean has almost no tide, so the spot you mark today is the same spot tomorrow. What moves a ring here is people, and the machines that clean the big beaches.
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The long run of sand from Can Pastilla to S'Arenal, with the beach bars along it numbered as balnearios. That number is the most useful thing you can bring. “Between Balneario 5 and 6, ten metres from the water” is a search area. “Playa de Palma” is several kilometres of sand.
Like the other big beaches it is cleaned by machine in the season, and a ring lying near the surface can be moved or carried off with the sand. If it went in the evening, post it the same evening.
A sheltered bay in Calvià, shallow a long way out and full of families standing in the water. If it came off while you were swimming, it came off where you could still stand, and the circle is smaller than it feels. The same goes for Palmanova, Magaluf and Peguera along the same coast.
The long bay on the east coast, with the promenade behind it. It belongs to two towns, Son Servera and Sant Llorenç des Cardassar, and that matters more than it sounds: each town sets its own beach rules, and anything handed in goes to that town's hall. Say which end of the bay you were at.
Under Spanish law whoever finds a ring has to give it back to its owner or hand it in at the town hall (Article 615 of the Civil Code). In Palma that is the Oficina d'Objectes Trobats; anywhere else it is the Ajuntament of the town the beach belongs to. Ask there, and ask again a week later.
The rule is enforced. In March 2025 a court in Palma convicted a hobby detectorist who had sold jewellery found on the city's beaches instead of handing it in, and he had to pay about 5,300 euros to the lost-property office.
On an ordinary beach, usually yes. The Balearic heritage law bans detectors on the islands' heritage, and a beach is not heritage just by being a beach. Catalogued stretches are, and each town can add its own beach rules. The law itself, quoted, is on our page on metal detecting in Mallorca. Whoever goes checks the stretch first. That is their job, not yours.
Most people notice at the airport or while unpacking. You do not have to be on the island. The beach, the balneario or the end of the bay, and the day are enough to start with. If it could have come off on the way home, Palma airport has its own lost-property office.
Retrievly does not search. It connects the person who lost something with people nearby who own a detector and will go and look.
Several people on the island already search for lost rings, some for a fee. We are new here: if nobody near your beach has signed up yet, we go and find someone and send them your request.
Only a rough circle is shown in public. The exact spot goes to the one person you pick.
Posting is free and no money goes through Retrievly. A thank-you, if you want to give one, is between you and whoever goes out.
Post soon and draw the circle tight: those two decide it more than anything else. Retrievly vets nobody, so meet in daylight, somewhere public.
Post a requestNo account needed, not even to post. We ask for your email at the very end, nothing else.
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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