Clearwell Caves

Clearwell Caves represent one of Britain’s oldest mining sites, with evidence of iron ore extraction dating back to the Bronze Age. The natural caverns and hand-cut tunnels span multiple levels and contain workings from Roman, medieval, and Victorian periods. This incredible depth of history has created a layered haunting where ghostly miners from different eras seem to coexist, their phantom activities overlapping in the same passages where countless generations labored in darkness.

The most commonly reported phenomenon is the sound of mining activity in closed sections of the caves—the ring of hammers on iron, the scrape of shovels, and the rumble of carts echoing through passages where no one works. Visitors and staff describe encountering the apparitions of miners in various historical dress, from Victorian smocks to what appear to be Roman-era tunics. In one particularly active area known as “The Cathedral,” witnesses report seeing a group of Victorian miners working by lamplight, their figures solid and lifelike until they vanish without warning. Temperature anomalies are common throughout the caves, with certain chambers dropping dramatically in temperature without explanation.

The deepest levels of Clearwell Caves, some flooded and inaccessible, are considered the most haunted. Divers exploring these submerged passages report an overwhelming sense of dread and the feeling of being followed through the dark water. Several have surfaced claiming to have seen faces in the cave walls and heard voices calling from the flooded tunnels. The site has hosted numerous paranormal investigations, with teams recording unexplained voices, shadow figures on camera, and electromagnetic anomalies that cannot be attributed to modern equipment. Local legend speaks of miners who became lost in the extensive network and died in the darkness, their spirits condemned to search forever for the way back to the surface and daylight they never found.