When Mallorca Went Dark: What the Total Solar Eclipse Was Really Like
For months, Mallorca had been preparing for 12 August 2026.
Road closures were announced, emergency plans were drawn up, official viewing areas were created, buses were added, firefighters were put on standby and residents and visitors were repeatedly asked not to descend on the island’s most vulnerable natural areas.
Then, finally, the Moon moved in front of the Sun…
For 90 seconds, Mallorca went dark.
The build-up
The atmosphere across the island had been building throughout the days before the event.
By late morning of the 12 August several of the restrictions planned for later in the day had already been brought forward as car parks filled and traffic pressure increased. Roads into parts of the Serra de Tramuntana were closed earlier than originally planned, while popular coastal locations including Cala Tuent and sa Calobra reached capacity.
Elsewhere, people gathered on beaches, hotel terraces, boats, rooftops, village streets and anywhere with a clear view towards the western horizon.
For us in the South West, it was quite bizarre to see a traffic jam outside of our house in s’Arraco!
And then the light began to change
The partial phase began at around 19:38.
At first, the changes were subtle. The Sun was still bright and the island still looked familiar.
But as the eclipse progressed, the light became increasingly strange.
It also became increasingly cool, which was a welcome relief from the intense temperature of the day.
This was one of the things photographs could not entirely capture.
Mallorca was still Mallorca, but for a few minutes it did not look quite like itself.
The moment Mallorca went dark
Visibility across the island seems to have been perfect for everyone who has reported their experience.
Totality swept across the Balearic Islands shortly after 20:30, with Mallorca experiencing roughly a minute and a half of complete eclipse.
After weeks of discussing viewing angles, cloud forecasts, mountains, road closures and whether everyone’s carefully selected viewpoint would actually work, suddenly none of that mattered.
The Sun disappeared.
It was the culmination of so much effort on our part at Majorca Mallorca to report to our group and advise them on how to experience the eclipse safely and enjoyably. To be finally “just watching” was a beautiful moment of peace followed by an awe inspiring show of nature’s power. As the Moon finally moved into position in front of the Sun, I don’t think anyone was truly prepared for the sight of the glowing solar prominences visible around its edge.
Around the island, people reacted in completely different ways.
Some cheered. Some went silent. Some cried.
Some simply stared upwards.
Where were you when Mallorca went dark?
One of the most interesting things about the eclipse was how differently it was experienced around Mallorca.
Someone watching from a beach had a completely different perspective from somebody standing in a village street, on a boat or in the mountains.
Holly Lowe said “We also hiked up a mountain – just behind Andratx. Absolutely EPIC. Taking the glasses off at maximum and seeing this huge black disc in the sky is something I will never ever forget! I honestly felt like I was on another planet! Coolest thing ever ever ever!! Absolutely buzzing about it! Scratched to bits from the no-path-mountain-expedition but un-bloody-believable!!!!”
We would love to keep adding experiences from around the island to this record of the evening. You can see everyone’s reactions to the eclipse here
If you’d like to share your own experiences please do in our Facebook group here.
After months of planning, Mallorca got through it
The scale of the official preparation had been extraordinary. The Balearic Government treated the eclipse as an emergency-planning event, coordinated through Cecopi, its operational emergency coordination centre. During the morning, some planned road closures in the Tramuntana had to be introduced earlier than expected as traffic increased. The Eclipse Protocol was also raised to Level 2 during the busiest period to strengthen coordination between the different authorities and emergency services.
More than 3,000 personnel took part in the wider eclipse operation across the Balearics, with up to 2,147 professionals mobilised simultaneously during the busiest hours of the day.
There had been understandable concerns about overcrowded roads, blocked emergency access and, perhaps most seriously, the danger of wildfire during one of the driest periods of the Mallorcan summer. In the end, however, the event passed without any major incidents being reported. For the emergency services who had spent months preparing for every possible scenario, that must have been an enormous relief. Anne Todd said "What an amazing experience the eclipse was! I didn't think I'd get there as it sounded like it was going to be chaos, but was actually very easy!"
Official assessment: Eclipse operation ends with 46 minor incidents and no serious problems
The Balearic Government has described the eclipse operation as a success for Balearic society as a whole, saying the historic day passed with normality, responsibility and without any serious incidents. The ECLIPBAL emergency protocol closed with 46 minor incidents registered by 112. More than 3,000 personnel took part in the wider eclipse operation, with up to 2,147 professionals mobilised simultaneously during the busiest hours of the day. Authorities have highlighted the importance of the information provided in advance, coordination between different administrations and organisations, and, above all, the responsible behaviour of the public. After weeks of preparation and repeated warnings about traffic congestion, wildfire risk, overcrowding and the need to protect emergency access routes, that is probably the best possible outcome Mallorca could have hoped for. The eclipse brought huge numbers of people outdoors and required one of the largest coordinated operations the islands have seen for a single event, but in the end the overwhelming majority of people followed the advice, respected the restrictions and helped the evening pass safely.Not everything went completely according to plan
There were inevitably a few problems.
People were reported walking along roads in the Tramuntana despite restrictions, creating exactly the sort of safety issue authorities had hoped to avoid. There was also an unexpected crowd at Mirador des Grau, on the road between Andratx and Estellencs. The viewpoint had been reserved for the Mallorca Astronomical Observatory, which had spent around a year preparing for the eclipse, but tourists nevertheless arrived despite the road having been closed from 10am. Even so, these were relatively minor problems compared with some of the scenarios officials had been preparing for.
Did the road closures work?
That will probably be debated for a while… There were certainly frustrations as some roads closed earlier than people expected. Popular locations filled quickly. There were queues, diversions and people discovering that the place they had planned to watch from was no longer accessible. But there was also a reason for all that planning. Mallorca had to accommodate an extraordinary movement of people towards a relatively small number of west-facing locations, many of them reached by narrow mountain or coastal roads.
At the same time, emergency vehicles still needed access, the island’s forests and natural areas needed protecting, and thousands of people needed to be able to get home again once the Sun had set. The fact that the evening ended without major incidents suggests that at least some of that preparation did exactly what it was supposed to do.
Staying local turned out to be pretty good advice
One message came up repeatedly in the days before the eclipse:
If you have a good view close to home or your accommodation, stay there.
For many people, that turned out to be excellent advice. The eclipse did not require a famous lighthouse, a mountain summit or a supposedly secret beach.
Some of the best experiences came from gardens, terraces, neighbourhood streets, nearby beaches and village viewpoints. “We thought we would have to go to the mountains, but after reading the advice in the Majorca Mallorca group we realised we could see the eclipse from our roof terrace! It was a magical night”. Clare.
That may be one of the best lessons from the whole event: sometimes you do not need to chase Mallorca around the island to experience something extraordinary.
A few tone-deaf moments
For the most part, people seemed to understand that the eclipse was something to be shared. That was part of what made the evening so special. Families, neighbours, visitors and locals all stood outside together, looking up at the same sky and experiencing the same extraordinary moment.
But not everyone got the memo.
There were a few reports of people behaving as though parts of Mallorca could be turned into private eclipse viewing areas for the evening. At Es Carbó, beachgoers objected after a group was brought ashore from a yacht by tender. At Es Trenc, umbrellas, sunbeds and towels were reportedly laid out in an apparent attempt to reserve a private section of beach for yacht guests. At Port de Valldemossa, there were also complaints about a yacht anchoring over Posidonia, prompting an angry reaction from people nearby.
Then there was Bahía Grande, where residents were left furious after German broadcaster ZDF set up a substantial live television production at the mirador. Trucks, tents and technical equipment reportedly occupied much of the public viewpoint area, with some local people saying their usual place to watch the eclipse had effectively been blocked by a live broadcast being sent back to Germany.
None of this quite captured the spirit of the day.
The eclipse was one of those rare events that belonged to everyone. It was not something to be fenced off, reserved, privatised or turned into a film set at the expense of the people already there. If there was one lesson in those more tone-deaf moments, it was that Mallorca’s landscapes, beaches and viewpoints are not simply backdrops for private experiences. On a night like that, they were part of a shared one.
What we think was missing
A couple of suggestions have come up since the eclipse that might have relieved some of the pressure on the roads and created more opportunities for people to experience the event together.
We knew IB3 would be broadcasting the eclipse, so why not have shown the coverage on big screens in town squares? That could have given people who were unable, or simply unwilling, to travel the chance to watch together as a community.
More thought could perhaps also have been given to getting people home afterwards. In Santa Ponça, for example, huge queues developed for taxis and buses once the eclipse was over.
What we will remember
There will be plenty of practical analysis of the eclipse. We will talk about traffic plans, buses, road closures, emergency operations and whether particular viewing areas worked.
But that probably will not be what most people remember, they will remember the light, the temperature changing, the strange colour of the island. The people around them suddenly becoming quiet and the cheering when totality arrived. And the extraordinary evening when a Mallorca evening became something none of us had seen before.
For me, that shared moment was very familiar. It reminded me of the evening “clap” during lockdown when neighbours stepped outside at the same time and, for a few minutes, everyone experienced something together. This time, thankfully, the reason was something wonderful.
And then the light came back
A minute and a half is not very long, after all the planning, discussion and anticipation, Mallorca’s total eclipse was over quickly. As the Sun began to reappear, people took relaxed and conversations started again. Roads reopened, people went home, although quite a lot of you apparently went for midnight swims! Others stayed out in the dark and watched the Perseid Meteor showers. And the island returned to normal. More or less. If the peak of the Mallorca tourist season can ever really be described as normal.
For those who stood outside on 12 August 2026 and watched Mallorca disappear briefly into the Moon’s shadow, it is going to be one of those evenings we talk about for a very long time.
And if you missed it…
The good news is that Spain does not have to wait very long for another total solar eclipse. On 2 August 2027, another total eclipse will cross the south of Spain. The path of totality will include much of Cádiz and Málaga, as well as Ceuta, Melilla and parts of Granada and Almería.
In Málaga, totality is expected to begin at around 10:48 in the morning and last approximately 1 minute 48 seconds. So if Mallorca’s eclipse has suddenly turned you into an eclipse chaser, you have less than a year to wait.
Málaga 2027, anyone?
More from our Mallorca eclipse coverage
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