The Ghost of Tom Crocker on Burgh Island

Off the mist-kissed coast of South Devon, where the tides of the English Channel carve secrets into the sand, Burgh Island rises like a windswept jewel—serene by day, spectral by night. It is here that the legend of Tom Crocker endures, a pirate hanged in 1395 whose restless spirit still roams the island he once ruled. Each August, during the week of his death, the people of Bigbury gather to mark his return—not with fear, but with fire, laughter, and tales of the rogue who defied both law and grave. Some say they’ve seen him—cutlass on hip, coat flapping in sea wind, pacing the cliffs he swore never to leave. Whether cautionary ghost story or cherished folk hero, Crocker walks still, and Burgh Island remembers.