Explore Kent’s eerie Deadman’s Island. It was once a graveyard for those with diseases, now off-limits due to exposed remains.
People with yellow fever and other diseases were buried there. They were isolated on Burntwick Island nearby in the early 1800s. The island seemed like a muddy swamp then, where bodies stayed hidden for a very long time.
Sea levels changed over time, and coffins and skeletons became visible. You can see them when the tide is low. Visiting the island is totally forbidden now, but daring people take kayak tours to see it.
A kayak tour guide mentioned nesting birds, urging people not to bother them. A reporter went on a tour with the guide, and they paddled around the creepy island together.
The tour lasted about two hours, and they also went to Burntwick Island, where people died before burial. No one saw bones that day; they were likely beneath the mud.
Archaeologists checked the bones back in 2017 and confirmed these bones were actually human. Kayakers can only paddle there during high tide, which is why things stay hidden.
One archaeologist saw something creepy: eels wriggled inside the skeletons. It looked as if the tide made them move, and they almost seemed living.
The Medway has many small, scary islands, most of which are accessible by kayak. Shipwrecks and naval battles left stories there. Deadman’s Island is known as the scariest. Fishermen claimed they saw human ghosts, who asked them to come help them.