Clovelly - Village of Phantom Fishermen

Clovelly is a village that seems suspended between past and present - a precipitous 400-foot cobbled street plunging down to a tiny harbor, with whitewashed cottages clinging to the cliff face. Cars cannot navigate its steep donkey path, and the village has remained largely unchanged for centuries. This temporal isolation appears to have created thin places where the past manifests with startling clarity. For generations, residents and visitors have reported encounters with ghosts who seem unaware they are dead, continuing their routines as if still living in centuries past.

The most persistent hauntings involve phantom fishermen returning from the sea. Witnesses report seeing groups of men in oilskins and sou’westers trudging up the steep cobbled street in the pre-dawn hours, carrying nets and the day’s catch, only to fade away before reaching their homes. These apparitions are believed to be fishermen lost to the treacherous North Devon coast, forever returning home from voyages they never completed. The harbor itself is a site of intense supernatural activity - the sound of phantom boats being launched echoes across the water on calm nights, and some have reported seeing fully-rigged sailing vessels that vanish when observed directly.

The cottages lining High Street experience their own paranormal phenomena. Residents report the sounds of domestic life from previous centuries - spinning wheels, the clatter of clogs on cobbles, children’s laughter, and women’s voices singing old Devon folk songs. One cottage near the Red Lion Inn is particularly active, with the ghost of a young woman in a white cap and apron who appears at windows, staring out to sea as if waiting for someone who will never return. The village’s isolation and preservation seem to act as a supernatural time capsule, keeping the dead anchored to the place they loved in life.