Jock Brocas On Spiritual Life

Sunday, 10 May 2026

England’s Haunted Islands: Red-eyed Monsters, Giant Human Skeletons, Eerie Longships...

Terryjoyce, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

England’s Haunted Islands

I suppose in many ways, Great Britain is just one (relatively) big haunted island, stuffed to the gills with paranormal activity.

That being said, there’s a plethora of small islands and islets around England (the focus of this particular investigation) which are themselves distinguished by various kinds of supernatural/unexplained activity.

And here are a few of them:

Osea Island

Mark Crombie, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

Part of Essex’s Blackwater Estuary archipelago, Osea Island, from Old English "Osyth's island, is an inhabited island consisting of approximately 380 acres (150 hectares) connected to the mainland by a causeway that is covered at high water. Owned by pop producer Nigel Frieda, there are 38 residential properties, a recording studio, and a pub called The Puffin; the island serves as a secluded, "hidden" location used for music, film, and private events, with the population fluctuating during large private events or film productions, sometimes reaching over 200 people.

Charrington brewing family member Frederick Nicholas Charrington (1850 -1936) established a retreat for wealthy alcoholics on Osea Island, among whom it is rumoured that Jack the Ripper suspect Walter Sickert was included. From 2005 to 2010, it was a rehabilitation centre specialising in the treatment of addiction problems and mental health, named the Causeway Retreat; in 2008, the late Amy Winehouse attended the island’s rehab clinic. On November 19th 2010, Brendan Quinn's Twenty 7 Management, which had run the Causeway Retreat, pleaded guilty at Chelmsford Magistrates' Court, and was fined £8,000 plus £30,000 costs for running an unlicensed hospital; District Judge David Cooper said the firm's standards "would really shame a third world country".

Although not haunted per se, Osea has a noticeably peculiar atmosphere, which coupled with its unique location, have made the island popular with filmmakers, as shown in the clips below. The proximity to the site of the 991 AD Battle of Maldon (see also Northey Island) means that the shades of Viking stragglers and Anglo-Saxon survivors of the clash may linger in the environs, as has been posited for the area. There have indeed been reports of sightings of a misty figure walking along the mudflats near Osea; local legend suggests this apparition is a Viking soldier, still waiting for a longship that departed over a thousand years ago.

The Third Day Trailer (2020)

The Woman in Black (1989) The 1989 television adaptation of Susan Hill's ghost story The Woman in Black used the tidal causeway of Osea Island as the filming location for the fictional "Nine Lives Causeway".

Northey Island

Northey Island Tidal Crossing by John Walton, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Owned by the National Trust, Northey lies in estuary of the River Blackwater, linked to the south bank of the river by a causeway, which is covered up to 3 hours either side during high tide. The bloody Battle of Maldon (991 AD) between the Anglo-Saxons and invading Vikings took place on the causeway; the spirits of the slain apparently still haunt the vicinity.

Battle of Maldon (991 AD) - Full Poem

Mersea Island

The original uploader was Geni at English Wikipedia., Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons

The tidal Mersea Island is the joint largest (7 sqm) and second most populated (7,000 to 7,500 residents) of all those isles I’ve singled out for investigation. Connected to the mainland by the Strood, a causeway that can flood at high tide, Mersea has been inhabited since pre-Roman times.

Oh, and the spectre of a Roman legionary who walks the ancient Strood causeway. Sightings from 1904 describe him marching alongside cars, fighting, or guarding the road, usually when the tide covers the causeway, so sometimes viewed only from the waist-up.

The Black Shuck hound of East Anglian legend, has been reported around the marshes and creeks, whilst the windswept, lonely tidal marshes of nearby Dengie Coast are associated with ghostly figures, including headless highwaymen and mysterious lights locally known as ‘corpse candles’. See also Viking ghosts from the Battle of Maldon (991 AD).

The landscape of nearby 100-acre Ray Island helped inspire Sarah Perry’s The Essex Serpent (2016). Stories recount that a bear escaped from a ship onto the island and killed a group of fisherman who had landed there. A violent drunk apparently chased his wife and daughter into the island’s marshes but was drowned by the rising tide. Screams can be heard along with the panting of the mother and the wretched baby's weeping.

Canvey Island

Canvey Island by N Chadwick, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The grim low-lying Cockney retreat of Canvey Island has an area of 7.12 square miles, similar to Mersea but boasts a far higher population of 38,327 residents condemned to live in a blasted wasteland of former hazardous chemical works and decrepit amusement arcades.

The forlorn ghost of a Viking haunts the mudflats on the northeast corner of the island. The Danes have been connected to a pre-Maldon skirmish here with King Alfred's son, Edward. The warrior also supposedly entered the bedroom of one Charlie Stamp, a resident of Canvey Point during the 1920s and 1930s and told his sorry tale to the sympathetic yokel.

Foulness

The northern end of The Broomway by Trevor Harris, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Essex’s nine square mile marshy Foulness Island lies in the Thames estuary. It is separated from the mainland by narrow creeks and usually closed to the general public, having been taken over for military use in 1914. The 2021 Census recorded 158 residents (down from 212 in 2000) of the Godforsaken isle, primarily located in the northern villages of Churchend and Courtsend, accessible through army zones.

By July 2022 the general store and post office in Churchend had been abandoned; The George and Dragon pub in Churchend shut permanently in 2007, while the church of St Mary the Virgin closed in May 2010. Floods afflict Foulness, whilst the Broomway (named after the brooms that used to mark a safe route), a tidal path that predates the Romans, is extremely dangerous in misty weather; the incoming tide floods across the sands at high speed and the water forms vicous whirlpools, earning the title, "the most perilous byway in England".

Over 100 people have drowned on the path, which is also called “The Doomway”. In 2026, an Amazon delivery van became stranded on the Broomway after following misleading automated GPS navigation instructions for Foulness. Phantom Broomway travellers, ghostly smugglers and spectral other figures appear in the strange mists of the Foulness, often accompanied by chilling windy echoes.

Holy Island/Lindisfarne

Michael D Beckwith, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons

Surely one of the most haunted islands in the world, 2 square mile Holy Island or Lindisfarne, is a tidal causeway accessible world historic site with 150 to 180 permanent inhabitants.

A site of immense importance to Anglo-Saxon Christianity, the wealthy abbey was the target of one of the first Viking raids in England in the year AD 793.

Alcuin, a Northumbrian scholar at Charlemagne's court wrote: "Never before has such terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race ... The heathens poured out the blood of saints around the altar, and trampled on the bodies of saints in the temple of God, like dung in the streets."

The raid and other tragic events has given Lindisfarne a host of spectral residents, including:

St. Cuthbert: The island's patron saint is often seen wandering the ruins of the Priory and the shore, especially on stormy nights, creating St. Cuthbert’s Beads (fossilized sea lilies).

Chmee2, CC BY 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Spectral Monks: Cowled monks, believed to be spirits of those killed in the AD 793.

Yet another White Lady: possibly a nun or a drowned local, glimpsed by the sand dunes.

The White Hound: A huge ghostly white dog jumps from the castle battlements at visitors, only to disappear.

Lindisfarne Castle Shade: An English Civil War-era soldier frequently seen or heard, accompanied by phantom footsteps, belching and the stench of stale tobacco.

Vikings: Eerie longships, accompanied by warlike bellowing and hazy helmeted figures on the shoreline.

Causeway Figures: Monks rise from the mist on the causeway road to warn cars back or lure them into the tidal waters, presumably believing them Vikings. Wildfowlers have seen silent, robed figures with hands raised high above their heads in prayer on the tidal mudflats. Visitors to Lindisfarne Priory report hearing disembodied Latin chanting, whilst sudden drops in temperature are often felt in the ruins.

On a lighter note, the local wedding superstition that brides had to walk or jump the length of the so-called ‘Petting Stone’ just outside the island’s St Mary’s Church. If she couldn’t, the marriage would be cursed. The stone is said to be the pedestal of St Cuthbert’s Cross A couple in 2006 re-enacted the custom for their wedding to help bless the marriage with fertility and good luck. There is a belief the stone might have been here before the monks abandoned the first priory in AD 875.

Cul De Sac 1966 Trailer; set on Lindisfarne

The Farne Islands

Inner Farne Lighthouse, The Farne Islands by habiloid, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Famed for Grace Darling (1815–1842), the Victorian lighthouse keeper's daughter who became a national heroine for her exploit in rescuing shipwreck survivors, Northumbria’s tiny Farne Islands also have a less heroic side, as the home of stunted, “goat-riding devils” no less. Their hideous visages were said have inspired the sanctuary knocker of Durham Cathedral.

Sanctuary Knocker, Durham Cathedral by Paul Harrop, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The legend is found in Bede’s Life of Saint Cuthbert, where he reports that no one could live there in peace until the saint drove them away them from the island.

However, it is in the Life of Bartholomew, a twelfth century hermit, we find the most detailed description “clad in cowls and riding upon goats, black in complexion, short in stature, their countenances most hideous, their heads long, the appearance of the whole troop horrible. Like soldiers they brandished in their hands lances, which they darted after the fashion of war.” Following their eventual banishment, the demons went to the neighbouring islands of East & West Wideopens but were restrained and fenced in with the sign of the cross.

Theories posit the ‘devils’ are in fact descendants of early settlers or aboriginal folk cut off from the mainland; insular dwarfism is actually a recognised phenomenon. Unlikely though, as the islands are only 2 to 5 miles from the mainland.

Grace Darling is also said to haunt the islands, presumably as a supernatural warning of impending storms. I guess.

The Hilbres

Peter Craine / Hilbre Islands at high tide

The ‘Charybdis’ of the Wirral (Merseyside)? Apparently so...

This from The Wirral Globe (February 2025)

In 1149 AD, there is a mention of a strange monster living in the sea off Hilbre Island, which manifested itself as a maelstrom or vortex, sucking people and ships towards their doom. Tales of the giant whirlpool are now thought to be exaggerated folklore, but interestingly, there have been a number of reports of a strange whirlpool in the vicinity of Hilbre Island over the years. In particular, in the summer of 1972, the Wheeler family from Frankby were enjoying a day out at Hilbre Island.

They relaxed in the sunshine and total tranquillity as they walked along the coast, collecting shells and so on, when ten-year-old David Wheeler drew his father’s attention to a strange sight. About 200 yards offshore, a vigorous whirlpool could be seen. It seemed to be very powerful and was moving northwards, heading inshore. The family became concerned when they realised that a couple, bobbing about on the waves in a rubber dinghy, were about to be caught up in the looming whirlpool. They were rowing frantically to escape, but the strength of the whirlpool was too great to resist. In desperation, they dived from the dinghy and swam desperately towards the shore. Within seconds, the whirlpool had swallowed up the dinghy, which then spiralled downwards, deep beneath the waves. Mr Wheeler was deeply disturbed by the sight. He grabbed his son and younger daughter by the hand, and the family quickly made their way south to get as far away from the destructive whirlpool as possible.

Also...

13-year-old Susan Rogers, who visited Hilbre Island in the winter of 1954 with her 18-year-old cousin, Tina Jones. Susan had a row with Tina on the island and ran off to hide. Tina searched for her cousin, calling out and warning that the tide would soon be coming in, cutting off the island from the mainland. Susan sulked into the "Ladies' Cave" on the island as the rain-laden skies darkened. She was gazing out from the cave when she heard a rattling sound. Something touched her bare ankle. She looked down and saw what appeared to be a dark brown length of cane covered in bristles, quivering between her sandals. She spun around in fright and saw something horrifying. A huge crustacean-like creature, about four feet high and six feet wide, stood on four — perhaps even six —jointed legs. It was grey and clad in segmented shells. The most frightening thing about it was its pair of huge, blood-red eyes. Susan almost fainted with fear. The "bristled cane" prodding at her was one of two antennae attached to the head of the monstrosity. Its mouth opened and closed with a rattling sound, and its legs clicked as it lunged forward. Susan leaped from the cave mouth and landed on the rocks below with a sprained ankle. She still couldn't scream, and almost blacked out twice as she scrambled across the beach, because she could hear the rattling sound in the distance. Tina found her in a sorry state on all fours, and shuddered when Susan told her about the thing' in the cave. The unknown shelled creature was allegedly seen on several more occasions at Hilbre Island in the 1960s, and there is even one report of a similar creature being washed ashore on Parkgate Promenade during a fierce storm in the late 1940s.

Drake’s Island

Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

6.5 acre Drake's Island lies 500 metres from land in Plymouth Sound, the waters south of Plymouth in Devon. The island has a long history as a defensive bastion for the naval city.

Yet another White Lady is said to haunt the rock, as well as ghostly sentries and spooky secret army tunnels.

Burgh Island

Nilfanion, CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

Burgh Island is a small 26 acre tidal island on the coast of South Devon, with 12 residents, who look after the Art Deco Burgh Island Hotel and the Pilchard Inn, parts of which date to the 14th century. Agatha Christie used the island and its hotel as a setting and inspiration for And Then There Were None (1939) and Evil Under the Sun (1941).

In 1395 Robin Hood-esque smuggler-pirate Tom Crocker reportedly died from illness or was shot in the Pilchard Inn and haunts the pub; Tom Crocker Day is celebrated annually on August 14th. His restless shade roams Burgh Island, searching for lost treasure. Apparently.

Burgh Island (1964)

Lundy

North West Point, Lundy Island by Philip Halling, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Once amazingly the lair of North Africa Barbary Pirates, this 1+3⁄4 square mile island in the Bristol Channel is often shrouded by fog and has been the scene of many shipwrecks. Lundy has a storied and often violent history, dating back to the Mesolithic period.

Around 25 to 30 people live permanently on Lundy, consisting primarily of staff and volunteers employed by the Landmark Trust to manage the island's services, properties, and farm.

Supernatural phenomena on Lundy includes The Old Light: a decommissioned lighthouse is a focal point for paranormal occurrences, linked to past lighthouse keepers and their families. Millcombe House: Reports include a ghost of a young boy on the stairs. Marisco Tavern: Tales exist of a 19th-century shooting repeating itself and other strange events all reported by staff and visitors. The "White Lady": A spectral woman has been reported wandering the cliffs.

Two immense ‘Giant’s Graves’ were discovered on the island:

"During harvest time in 1851 islanders on Lundy discovered two immense granite coffins, one of them said to have been ten feet long the other eight. When these sarcophagi were opened, the excavators found the skeletons of two eight feet tall humans, seven other skeletons of normal stature and other assorted human bones. Either in the coffins themselves or beside them, sources vary, were found some pale blue stone beads and some fragments of pottery. The date attributed to the beads, and also the graves, is anywhere from Roman times to the 14th century. The beads were apparently sent to Bristol Museum but there seems to be no record of what happened to the human remains."

Lundy was also said to be an entry point to the Celtic underworld.

St Michael’s Mount

No machine-readable author provided. Wigulf~commonswiki assumed (based on copyright claims)., CC BY-SA 3.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

The more modest Cornish sibling of Mont Saint-Michel, St Michael’s Mount has a few spooky tales to tell. The island, long associated with Arthurian legend, also was/is home to the 18ft tall giant Cormoran, who built the rock with white granite from the mainland.

This from Cornwall Live in January 2020:

An amateur photographer claims he shot a haunting image of a giant shadowy figure heading across from St Michael's Mount towards land. But not many people know that a real skeleton of an exceptionally tall 7ft 8in man was dug up during renovation work in the late 19th century. Russell, 44, who lives in nearby Marazion, said: "I was photographing St Michael's Mount yesterday afternoon at sunset and think I managed to capture an image of the ghost of Cormoran the Giant, who lived on St Michael's Mount many years ago, heading to land from the Mount. "He terrorised the inhabitants and the villagers of Marazion, until he was slain by a boy called Jack, who then became Jack the Giant killer so the story goes." Visitors to the castle will also see Cormoran’s heart set in stone among the cobbles on the long climb up the path.

St. Michael's Mount - The Giant's heart in the cobbled path by Chris Gorringe, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons

A Lady in Grey also supposedly haunts the Mount, but in a purely benign fashion.

Lynx1211, CC BY-SA 4.0 , via Wikimedia

Kent’s Isles of Sheppey, Thanet and Grain also have their own chilling tales, as does the Isle of Wight (see my PDN investigation below), and the Scilly Isles off the Cornish coast, but they (excepting the Isle of Wight) must wait for another day, some sooner than later.

Isle of Wight Pagan Mysteries from Sheela na Gig to King Arwald

Stephen Arnell unveils bewitching Isle of Wight pagan mysteries from the grotesque Sheela na Gig to the enigmatic King Arwald.

paranormaldailynews.com

LINKS

The Third Day: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-54343382

A Ghostly Tale from Canvey Island: https://phoenixfm.com/2013/12/03/a-ghostly-tale-from-canvey-island/

The Roman Soldier who walks the Strood: https://visitmerseaisland.co.uk/do-you-believe-in-ghosts-have-you-heard-about-the-roman-soldier-who-walks-the-strood/

Ray Island and Mysterious Tales: https://visitmerseaisland.co.uk/ray-island-and-mysterious-tales/

Essex landscapes and Ghost Tales: https://thehistorypress.co.uk/article/essex-landscapes-and-ghost-tales/

Lindisfarne Legends: St Cuthbert, Ghostly Monks and the Petting Stone: https://www.icysedgwick.com/lindisfarne-legends/

Drake’s Island: https://drakes-island.com/paranormal-ghost-events

Burgh Island: https://www.devonlive.com/news/history/smugglers-ghost-haunts-devon-holiday-7218630

The Hilbre Island Thing: https://www.wirralglobe.co.uk/news/24954115.tom-slemens-haunted-wirral-hilbre-island-thing/

The Farne Island Devils: https://random-times.com/2021/02/03/the-strange-story-of-the-farne-island-devils/

Lundy: https://uk.news.yahoo.com/mysterious-devon-island-dark-history-030000553.html

Lundy Giant's Graves: https://www.lundyisleofavalon.co.uk/lundy/giantsgraves.htm

Prehistoric Lundy: https://www.landmarktrust.org.uk/lundyisland/discovering-lundy/history/prehistoric1/

The Paranormal Database - Northumberland: https://www.paranormaldatabase.com/northumberland/nhumdata.php?pageNum_paradata=3

This desolate English path has killed more than 100 people: https://www.bbc.co.uk/travel/article/20170110-why-the-broomway-is-the-most-dangerous-path-in-britain

STEPHEN ARNELL’S HISTORICAL WHODUNNIT ‘THE GREAT ONE’ IS AVAILABLE ON AMAZON KINDLE:

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Friday, 1 May 2026

Dead in the Water

“I love a sunburnt country,

a land of sweeping plains,

Of ragged mountain ranges,

Of droughts and flooding rains.

I love her far horizons,

I love her jewel-sea,

Her beauty and her terror-

The wide brown land for me!”

(From the 1904 poem “My Country”, by Dorothea Mackellar)

I’ve got a question, one which I’m fairly sure I’m not alone in pondering; can a place or object be cursed? Could an ancient curse be the reason for the 21 recorded deaths at an innocent-looking waterhole in a humid jungle in the tropical far North of Queensland, Australia? Could disregard for an old maritime superstition be the reason so many people who have come into contact with an old shipwreck in Western Australia- a wreck with a sinister reputation- have suffered bad luck, and some even death?

These are questions which warrant further exploration, and the locations pertaining to those questions are intriguing indeed, as are their stories. This country, although a “young” one in terms of European colonisation, has a history that stretches back into the dim reaches of time, with its Indigenous custodians, the Australian Aborigines, having arrived here well over 40,000 years ago. It also has a more recent history related to its use as a penal colony, one marred by bloodshed and brutality, and accordingly, abounds with ghost stories. The following two tales, however, are not so much about ghosts- although these are mentioned on occasion. These are stories of two places said to be cursed, and of those who were, perhaps, their victims...

THE “DEVIL’S POOL” - BABINDA, FAR NORTH QUEENSLAND

Deep within a verdant tropical rainforest in Babinda, Cairns, in Far North Queensland, lies a deceptively peaceful-looking pool of clear, invitingly cool water. But visitors to this location should avoid the temptation to swim here, and warning signs have also been posted prohibiting swimming; doing so has cost many an unsuspecting traveler their lives. This is the Devil’s Pool, and it has a sinister reputation. Over the past 60 years, roughly 21 people have lost their lives in these waters- most of them male, almost all of them white. Old newspaper reports indicate that there may have been more lives lost there before official records began, but the official death toll alone is enough to have raised both curiosity, and speculation that something was...wrong...with that part of the creek.

cursed — **The Devil’s Pool, seen from above (image courtesy of Facebook/Scott Harty/FNQ Waterfalls page**

BACK IN THE DREAMTIME

Babinda is an Australian Indigenous/Aboriginal word, and comes from the words “Bunna” (running water) and “Binda” (shoulder or rock), and is known to the Indigenous people in the area as a sacred place, but also, or at least to some, it is a known as a cursed place- an evil one. There is an old Indigenous “Dreamtime” (creation story) legend attached to the Devil’s Pool, which tells of a beautiful young woman named Oolana from the Yidinji tribe, who was promised to an elder from the same tribe, Waroonoo. A neighbouring tribe arrived in the area one day, and Oolana soon fell hopelessly in love with a handsome young warrior from that tribe named Dyga. Realizing they would be punished by their respective tribes for their adultery, the young lovers fled into the valleys, but were soon caught by the tribal Elders. Rather than face harsh punishment at the hands of the angry Elders, the distraught Oolana broke away from her captors, and threw herself into the calm waters of the creek of which the Devil’s Pool is part, screaming for Dyga to join her.

According to the legend, as soon as Dyga hit the water, the tranquil creek erupted into a rushing torrent, and in a section of the creek now known as the ‘washing machine’, the wailing Oolana disappeared among the huge boulders that lay scattered about submerged in the rushing water. Since that fateful day, Oolana’s spirit is said to be heard on occasion, crying out for her lost love, and is said by some locals to seek him still, by luring young men to their deaths in the Devil’s Pool; a story similar to those of the Lorelei of the Rhine river, or the fabled Sirens of maritime lore. The waters have thus also earned a haunted reputation, and tourists and travellers are warned not to swim there. However, according to some Indigenous locals in the area, there is a belief that those of their culture are quite safe to enter the water, and remain unharmed.

The rumours of Oolana’s spirit could likely be attributed to hearsay, as no confirmation of any encounters with her apparition are to be found, but the paranormal connotations that surround the site have nonetheless persisted for quite some time, as illustrated by the story of Patrick McGann...

PATRICK, IN THE POOL?

In the carpark adjacent to The Boulders, a plaque memorializes one young, white, male victim- a nurse from New South Wales named Patrick McGann who, as the plaque poignantly states, “came for a visit on 22/6/79...and stayed forever”. The small, sad memorial was installed at the behest of Patrick’s father Terry, who almost lost his own life in the same spot as his son while assisting local Police in the search for the body. In an article published in the Australasian Post newspaper on the 2nd of March 1991, Terry spoke about a photograph, taken for Police records, which he strongly believed that the photograph contains an image of his departed son, saying:

“It (the photograph) was for police records and when it was developed the sergeant at Babinda took me quietly to one side. There was Pat’s face in the water. He looked exactly the same in both photos, even to the cigarette in his mouth. I’ve spoken to many priests about it and one told me ‘there’s a lot of things in life we will never understand. This is one of them.’”

While the image taken of the area where Patrick McGann drowned may to some show only rocks and churning water, the comfort the image brought his father- that of believing his son’s spirit continues after death- is not to be doubted, nor belittled; nor does it negate the possibility of something anomalous having occurred at the Devil’s Pool. Is that something a curse, a ghost, both of the aforementioned? Or, as is commonly believed and has been proven repeatedly, is the Devil’s Pool, with its strong underwater currents and watery hidden caverns, merely a treacherous place to swim? To the Indigenous locals, it’s a combination of both. Perhaps the priest who spoke to Terry McGann was correct, that there are things that can never be understood- and perhaps the mystery that surrounds the Devil’s Pool is one of those.

THE ALKIMOS: YANCHEP BEACH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA

The Alkimos in 1963, prior to running aground (image credit: Shipwrecks WA/ Australian Geographic)

Jutting in rusted, time-worn pieces from jagged rocks a short distance from the golden-white sands of Yanchep beach, about 56 kilometers north of Western Australia’s capital city, Perth, are the remains of what was once a ship with a long history filled with misfortune- and apparently also home to a resident ghost. Divers and fishermen are wary of the wreck, and some avoid it entirely. Tourists who visit the beach to photograph it have sometimes found that their cameras won’t work, and upon attempting to leave the beach, some have had their cars refuse to start. The story of this ship is unusual to say the least, and she has become the stuff of Australian maritime- and paranormal- legend.

BAD LUCK FROM THE BEGINNING?

Now known as the Alkimos, her story began in America in October 1943, when she was known as the George M. Shriver, and was one of the 2,750 ships collectively known as Liberty Ships. Often named after influential American public figures of that time, Liberty ships were known for their rapid construction, with a new ship completed in about 10 days, and mostly without any issues, but the Alkimos apparently proved an immediate exception to that rule, with her construction rumored to have taken six weeks to complete. This was only the beginning of the series of misfortunes that would plague the ship until the end of her seafaring days.

The Alkimos in her final resting place (image credit: shipwreckswa.com)

An old maritime superstition maintains that to change the name of a ship is bad luck; and yet the George M. Shriver, only 9 days after being launched from the dock at the Bethlehem-Fairfield shipyards in Maryland on October 11, 1943, and upon being reassigned to the Norwegian Shipping and Trade Mission on October 20th, was renamed the M.V. Viggo Hansteen, after the then-prominent Norwegian lawyer, politician and labour activist who was executed by the Nazis two years previously. This re-christening seemed to mark the beginning of the ship’s almost endless bad luck.

WAR WOUNDS

The Viggo Hansteen’s first wartime mission was as part of a convoy to Bandur Shapur, via the Mediterranean and the Suez canal, and in early 1944, she set sail with a crew of 47 members comprised of Canadian and Norwegian members. Soon after she steamed, somehow unscathed, through a convoy of German U-boats in the Atlantic, many of the ships around her were destroyed. However, this seeming good luck was to be only temporary, and the Viggo Hansteen beached herself on an uncharted reef shortly after. The next morning, however, she was mysteriously floating free again. Upon her return to New York soon after freeing herself from the reef, the ship was loaded with a cargo of ammunition and gliders, and a 28-year-old Canadian radio operator named Maude Elizabeth Steane joined the crew. She served on the ship for only a few months, then while the ship was unloading gliders in Piombini (or according to some reports, Naples), Italy, on August 14, 1944, Maude Elizabeth Steane was shot and killed by the ship’s Norwegian gunnery officer, who then turned the gun upon himself. Due to the horrific nature of the incident, the Military concealed the true cause of her death, and instead listed her as the first Canadian woman to die in active service, killed by enemy fire.

The rumour that the ship was jinxed began to circulate at this point, and the ghost of Maude Steane was held responsible. Then came the repeated, unexplainable breakdowns and mechanical faults, which saw the ship deemed a danger to the other vessels in any convoy she was part of. The Viggo Hansteen, at one point, was apparently in drydock more often than she was at sea. Crew turnover between missions was reportedly close to 100%, possibly due to numerous accounts of paranormal activity on board, and the belief held by crew members that the ship was cursed- a belief that seemed to be reinforced by the misfortune that touched a great many who had ventured on board the ship. An improbably large amount of crew members are said to have suffered injuries or illnesses, and others had family members die unexpectedly, or commit suicide.

NO PEACE IN PEACETIME

When peace was declared in 1945 the United States sold off its Liberty ships, and the Viggo Hansteen was sold twice more, with the first sale (to an S. Ugelstad from Oslo) occurring in 1946. In April 1952, she ran aground off the coast of New Zealand, suffering slight damage, and it was at that time that reports began circulating of sightings of a hulking figure dressed in oilskins, rubber boots, and a green seaman’s coat, being regularly seen on the deck. As is somewhat common with frequently sighted apparitions, the resident ghost was given a name- Henry.

After having run aground, the damaged ship was sold to owners from Costa Rica, who had her repaired, and then in 1953 she was again sold, this time to a Greek trading company, who acquired the ship at a bargain price. Once more, maritime superstition concerning changing a ship’s name was disregarded, and the ship was renamed the S.S. Alkimos, which was both the name of a Greek god, and their word for “strong”, and is the name she bears to this day. Under this name, the ship travelled the world’s oceans without incident for nearly a decade, until March 20th 1963 when, during a voyage from Jakarta to Bunbury, Western Australia, she hit Beagle Island Reef, near the city of Geraldton, north of Perth, Western Australia’s capital city. Having suffered heavy damage, the ship was towed to Fremantle (also in Western Australia), where she underwent repairs for two months.

After settlement of a dispute concerning payment for the repairs, the Alkimos left Fremantle under tow by the Hong Kong-based tugboat Pacific Reserves. Only a few hours out of port the tow line snapped in the rough waters, and the Alkimos was driven by the strong currents towards the shore. Although intact, the ship could not be refloated at the time, so she was beached north of Fremantle, filled with water to secure her in place, and left in the charge of an onboard caretaker, the first of a succession of people who were employed to stay on the ship to guard her. That first caretaker, an American exchange student named Wayne Morgan, later told staff at the hospital he was admitted to after his experiences on the ship, of the terrifying days and nights he had spent on board, often cowering fearfully in his cabin, too afraid to open the door; of witnessing an immense, misty, human-shaped figure stalking the decks; and of cabin doors being opened and closed unaided by human hand. He quit, terrified, and was succeeded by a married couple, who also quit after the pregnant wife fell while on board the ship, later giving birth to a stillborn baby.

SALVAGING SCARES

The Alkimos remained stranded north of Fremantle until early 1964 when, on February 28th, a tugboat from the Philippines, the Pacific Star, arrived and managed to refloat the ship. However, shortly after the return journey began, the captain of the tugboat was arrested and detained due to money he owed to a company in Manila. As the Alkimos was no longer legally allowed to be towed or offered aid by the Pacific Star, she was set at anchor between the reefs of Eglington rocks, roughly 4 kilometers south of Yanchep beach, where she was left abandoned. The Pacific Star was mysteriously set ablaze while in port awaiting legal proceedings, and the doomed Alkimos broke anchor 4 months later, drifting onto Eglington rocks, where she remains to this day.

The Alkimos as she looks now (image credit: Instagram/@matt.odonoghue.images)

Over the following years, a number of salvage crews and caretakers lived on board the Alkimos as they attempted to save what they could of the ship, but each of those attempts were in vain. The first salvage attempt was cut short after a fire somehow broke out on board and all work had to be ceased due to the ship having been more damaged than was first thought. Soon after, the Alkimos was sold by her owners for scrap. Numerous further attempts at salvage were made over time- twelve in total, but none were successful. In 1969, one crew of salvage workers were driven off the wreck after yet another mysterious fire, and it was becoming increasingly apparent, at least to those on board, that the ship was haunted. Workers reported having had their tools moved by unseen hands, and spoke also of tools vanishing, only to reappear later. Salvage crews would stay on board 24/7 while they worked on the Alkimos, and many would refuse to leave their cabins at night if alone, for fear of what they may encounter. Those that did muster the courage to leave often reported hearing footsteps following them. The sound of someone climbing one of the ladders to the deck above was also heard on one occasion, when all the crew members were accounted for. The sounds and smells of food being prepared in the galley were reported too, but these would cease when those brave enough to investigate them would open the galley door, only resuming after the door was closed again. These experiences terrified several men to the extent that they quit their jobs rather than face another night of fear on the ship.

Now permanently stranded, the Alkimos was bought and sold again and again. Each new owner experienced misfortune of some sort. Several declared bankruptcy, others became seriously ill. Once they sold the ship, however, they were apparently no longer plagued by bad luck. Years passed, and attempts to salvage the Alkimos stopped. Her partly-dismantled remains sat in several metres of water, gradually being claimed by the sea, and a source of great interest to the curious onlookers who would frequently gather on the beach...and the legend of the cursed, haunted ship only continued to grow.

HORRIBLE HENRY

Cray (crayfish) fishermen in the area soon began to report seeing an extremely tall man dressed in oilskins on the decks of the Alkimos, and at first it was thought he was a hermit who had taken residence on the ship, but when the ship was searched, no trace of human habitation could be found. Talk of a curse was further fueled by the discovery of a human skull, found to be that of champion long distance swimmer named Herbert Voigt, who vanished in March, 1969, while attempting to swim from Cottesloe to Rottnest island. An extensive air-sea search failing to locate him. According to some reports, his skull was found four years later lodged in the hull of the Alkimos, and although how this discovery was made has never been adequately explained, it only added further weight to the case for a curse. Curiously, Voigt’s planned route was to have taken him nowhere near the ship. A number of people who have been on the beach near the ship are said to have slipped and fallen, or have become ill after their visit. Horses ridden on the nearby beach would become nervous, some riders would claim, and would either bolt in terror, or even refuse to pass the ship.

JACK’S JINX?

The most impressive documentation of the strange occurrences on board the Alkimos comes from Jack Sue, a renowned diver in Perth, who was so affected by his experiences on board the Alkimos to such an extent that he wrote a book about them, titled “The Ghost of the Alkimos” (Wong Sue, J., 2001, Jack Sue WA Skindivers Publication). Originally having no belief whatsoever in the paranormal, Sue had his mind changed when, accompanied by a film crew and several fellow skindivers, he spent a hair-raising night aboard the now-notorious old ship, as host of the Australian television program “Down Under”. Soon after they set foot on board the ship, determined to prove that nothing paranormal was taking place, a series of strange and terrifying events occurred for which they had no explanation. Multiple people reported listening in sheer amazement as the sound of sneezes, accompanied by footsteps, echoed from an area below deck known by everyone to be empty. One skindiver felt the sensation of something large brushing past him, and then watched in abject terror as the figure of a towering man, clad in oilskins, passed through a solid steel bulkhead. Sue, while attempting at some point to sleep below deck, reported having heard what sounded like someone rolling over in an adjacent bunk- one which he knew was unoccupied at the time.

Several of those who spent the night aboard the Alkimos would later regret their adventures, as they too would suffer illnesses, misfortunes, and tragedies. Jack Sue collapsed the day after he set foot ashore, and was hospitalized for almost a year, with doctors unable to diagnose his illness; another man lost his business, and yet another lost his girlfriend in a plane crash. In 1997 Jack Sue, despite swearing decades earlier to never have anything to do with the Alkimos again, ventured to the beach with the clearest view of the wreck, and soon after this he suffered a severe stroke. In an interview published on the 18th of January 1998 in Sydney’s Herald Sun newspaper, Sue said of the ship whose malignant influence had touched so many unfortunate people:

“It’s probably just coincidence, but you never can tell with the Alkimos. I can’t help thinking of the number of people who’ve driven down that beach in four-wheel drives to photograph the wreck and had their cars break down, or their cameras fail, or their watches stop. That ship is bad luck”.

CURSED QUESTIONS!

Stories of “cursed” objects and locations can be found in countries and cultures worldwide. We’re left to consider the nature- the possibility (or lack thereof)- of the existence of such things as curses. Could it be that a “curse” is an accumulation over time of energetic “traces” left behind by successive events charged with emotional energy- akin to that which the well-known Place Memory/Stone Tape hypothesis championed by T.C. Lethbridge seems to suggest? Could a series of many negative events, such as those linked to the Devil’s Pool and the Alkimos, leave negative energetic “traces”, and could these then accumulate? Could this energy physically impact someone, and if so, how, and by what mechanism? Does a person have to believe in curses for one to work? Could events that are blamed on a curse all be simply unfortunate coincidences, and misperception of events which could have an alternate, non-paranormal explanation? Whatever the answer may be, and whatever the explanation for the events at both of the above locations, their stories of curses and ghosts remain intriguing to many today, and are perhaps two of the most fascinating in Australia’s paranormal history.

Monday, 20 April 2026

Arthur’s Oven: Scotland’s Mysterious ‘Cursed’ Roman Beehive Temple

This would be Arthur’s Oven/O’on

For over fifteen hundred years, visitors beyond the remains of Rome’s Antonine Wall in Scotland’s Central Lowlands would be greeted by a mysterious sight if they took the route along River Carron in Stenhousemuir (Stone House in English).

This would be Arthur's Oven/O'on (Scots), an towering ancient igloo/beehive shaped stone building (hence the village name) believed to be a Roman temple of some sort rising commandingly on the high ground above the north bank of the Carron. In the Historia Brittonum by 9th century Welsh monk Nennius, the structure is described as a "round house of polished stone". Aside from King Arthur, the Oven has been attributed to Romans Julius Caesar, Vespasian, and the usurper Carausius, but the most likely builder is the Emperor Septimius Severus (145-211 AD), who campaigned north of the Antonine Wall across 208-2011 AD.

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The war started well enough for Severus, who managed to quickly reach the Antonine Wall which had been abandoned around 160-65 AD, but when he ventured into the highlands, the campaign became bogged down in a guerrilla war and the attempt to fully conquer Caledonia was never accomplished.

However he did reoccupy many forts built by Agricola over 100 years earlier and stymied the ability of the Caledonians to raid Roman Britain for some years.

With some possible exceptions (such as the Mausoleums of Augustus, Hadrian and Caecilia Metella in Rome, also Lucius Munatius Plancus in Gaeta) the building had few parallels anywhere in the Northern Roman empire, certainly in its unique beehive shape.

On reflection though, the mausoleum where the Berber King Juba II (son of Juba I of Numidia) and Queen Cleopatra Selene II (daughter of Antony and Cleopatra) were buried, also bears a certain vague resemblance to descriptions of Arthur’s Oven.

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In terms of the Oven, antiquarians left sketchy records of inscriptions, also carvings of eagles and victories. A single large stone slab lay in the centre of the floor forming a pedestal for a statue, one solitary bronze finger of which survived, lodged in a crevice. It is possible that the circular Roman building here was a temple dedicated to the goddess Victory or Mars, called a tropaeum by classicists..

Two other tropaeums include the rebuilt Trajan's Trophy in Romania and that of Augustus in La Turbie, near Monaco.

The Arthurian Connection

Arthur’s Oven lay close to the Roman fort at Camelon, the name itself prompting connections with the legendary Brythonic leader, although the name 'Camelon' may well have been coined by early antiquarians after the 15th century, with its earlier name being Carmore or Carmure. The myth of Camelon's twelve Arthurian (or Roman) brass gates was widespread but only commonplace items such as leather shoes and coins were found when a Tesco's supermarket was constructed in the area.

Scottish historian and folklorist Archie McKerracher (d. 2001) believed Arthur’s O’on was in fact Arthur’s famous Round Table where the King consulted his knights, who sat on a stone ledge reported within the building.

Septimius Severus: The Roman Who Tried To Take Scotland:

Arthur’s Oven was left largely intact when the Roman army withdrew from Scotland; maybe they couldn’t simply destroy a sacred structure especially if it represented not just a tropaeum but also served as a memorial to the men who had helped achieve the victory that had for a time secured the area.

Arthur’s Oven was denuded of its portable contents by the army before the legions decamped back to Hadrian’s Wall.

The indigenous population did not destroy the Oven once they had taken possession of it, a powerful sign of their triumph over the Romans? Perhaps as significant a symbol as the capture of a legionary eagle bestowing high honour on the tribe who held it?

The building remained impressive and its possession would have given distinction to any new owner, visible from a great distance, projecting an aura of power and influence over the surrounding land. It may have been used as a sacred shrine or a great hall – a meeting place of peoples and possibly a beacon for travellers. The O’on‘s hall-like chamber may have boasted an open fire set in the centre of the stone-paved floor, with smoke escaping through the top of the ‘beehive’. Dark Age Pictish society was after all hierarchical and status would be associated with symbols from the Roman occupation.

Arthur’s Oven survived through the following centuries, with even Edward I , ‘Hammer of the Scots’ leaving it undespoiled (unlike his theft of the Stone of Scone), presumably due to its Arthurian associations, which he wished to attach to himself, although some say he removed any remaining pagan symbols.

By the early eighteenth century, Arthur's O'on was one of the most celebrated antiquities in Britain. For the famed William Stukeley, it was "the most genuine and curious Antiquity of the Romans in this Kind, now to be seen in our Island or elsewhere.”

However, Sir Michael Bruce of Stenhouse, whose lands straddled the Carron, decided that his new mill needed a dam and rather than quarry fresh stone, he turned to the ancient structure standing nearby.

In his eyes the Oven was a ready-made source of high-quality building material. Within a few weeks, easily the best-preserved Roman monument in Scotland was obliterated, the stones carried away for the dam's construction. A structure that survived nearly sixteen centuries of weather, warfare, and neglect was undone by the spade of its greedy landlord, enraging classicists.

Bruce certainly wasn’t poor, and at the time of its destruction some gentlemen offered to assist him, redeeming the oven, providing him with free stone from a quarry, but he refused this . He may have wanted to rid himself of an ancient monument that attracted too many unwelcome visitors trampling onto his land, obstructing his other money-making schemes.

According to the Rev John Bonar, then Minister for Larbert Parish Church, “The curious will regret that the owner of Stenhouse and Stenhouse Mill was so destitute of all regard for antiquity. He certainly was no dilettante, neither real nor pretended. He was not one of the admirers of the beautiful and of the rare in the material world.”

Sir John Clerk of Penicuik, a leading Scottish antiquary, accused Bruce of having "no other motive had but to procure as many stones as he could have purchased in his own quarries for five shillings." His friend and fellow antiquarian Roger Gale transcribed the news into the minutes of the Society of Antiquaries of London, ensuring that the demolition would be remembered as a cautionary tale of wanton destruction.

William Stukeley was furious. In an extraordinary drawing, he imagined Bruce undergoing eternal punishment:

Stukeley's drawing of Sir Michael Bruce, "Stonekiller," eternally punished for his destruction of Arthur's O'on courtesy of Darrell J. Rohl

In a letter, he wrote, “I would propose, in order to make his name execrable to all posterity, that he should have an iron collar put about his neck, like a yoke; at each extremity a stone of Arthur's O'on to be suspended by the lewis in the hole of them; thus accoutred, let him wander on the banks of Styx, perpetually agitated by angry demons with oxgoads; "Sir Michael Bruce," wrote on his back in large letters of burning phosphorus.”

One poet imagined a traveler walking along the Carron, talking with the stones of the demolished Oven; each piece bemoaned its fate, recalling the monument's former glory and cursing the man who destroyed it.

Sir John Clerk of Penicuik cursed Bruce "with Bell, Book, and Candle". Five years later, he reported gleefully the mill and dam built from the O'on's stones had been destroyed in a great storm; poetic justice of a sort. Whether Bruce ended up in eternal torment is a different matter, although the destruction of the dam certainly smacks of Olympian displeasure.

At his estate of Penicuik House, Clerk instructed his son James to design a new stable block boasting a dome directly modeled on Arthur's O'on. Using existing drawings and descriptions as a guide, a dovecote replica perches above the stables, where it stands to this very day.