Lost & drowned villages

51 places across Britain and Ireland

• ArichonanNear Bellanoch, Argyll · A clearance village where the people fought back.
• BadbeaNear Berriedale, Caithness · A clifftop clearance village, so windy that children were tethered to stop them blowing away.
• BelnahuaSlate Islands, Argyll · A tiny slate island quarried away and left empty.
• Boreraig and SuisnishIsle of Skye · Two villages on Skye emptied by force, witnessed by a young geologist.
• Capel CelynLlyn Celyn, Gwynedd · A Welsh-speaking village drowned for Liverpool, and a famous slogan: Cofiwch Dryweryn.
• ClonminesCounty Wexford · A medieval town that died when its harbour filled with silt.
• Cwm ElanElan Valley, Powys · The drowned houses where the poet Shelley once stayed.
• CwmorthinNear Blaenau Ffestiniog, Gwynedd · A ruined slate quarry village beside a lonely lake.
• Cwmystwyth MinesCwmystwyth, Ceredigion · Ruined lead mines worked for 4,000 years, left to the mountains.
• Derwent and AshoptonLadybower Reservoir, Derbyshire · Two villages under a reservoir, which reappear in dry summers.
• Dunluce TownDunluce, County Antrim · A lost 17th-century town beside a clifftop castle.
• Eccles-on-SeaNorfolk coast · A village swallowed by the dunes and sea, whose church tower stood on the beach.
• EyamPeak District, Derbyshire · The plague village that shut itself away to save its neighbours.
• GainsthorpeNear Hibaldstow, Lincolnshire · Humps and bumps in a field that were once a village.
• Gola IslandOff County Donegal · An Irish-speaking island left empty, now coming back to life.
• HallsandsStart Bay, Devon · A fishing village washed away after its protective beach was dredged.
• Hampton GayNear Kidlington, Oxfordshire · A burned-out manor said to be cursed after turning away crash victims.
• Hampton-on-SeaNear Herne Bay, Kent · A seaside village built for oystermen, then taken by the sea within a lifetime.
• Hound Tor Medieval VillageDartmoor, Devon · The stone ruins of farmhouses abandoned on the moor 700 years ago.
• ImberSalisbury Plain, Wiltshire · A ghost village in the middle of a military range, open only a few days a year.
• InisharkOff County Galway · An island abandoned after storms cut it off from the world.
• InishmurrayOff County Sligo · An island monastery with cursing stones, left by its last people in 1948.
• KenfigNear Porthcawl, Bridgend · A medieval town lost under the sand dunes.
• LlanwddynLake Vyrnwy, Powys · A Welsh village that lies beneath Lake Vyrnwy.
• Mardale GreenHaweswater, Cumbria · A Lake District village drowned to give Manchester water.
• MingulayBarra Isles, Outer Hebrides · An island village left to the sand and seabirds, made famous by a song.
• Nant GwrtheyrnLlŷn Peninsula, Gwynedd · A quarry village in a hidden valley, said to be cursed by three monks.
• Old WinchelseaOff Rye, East Sussex · A Cinque Port destroyed by storms, and rebuilt on a hill nearby.
• OwthorneNear Withernsea, East Yorkshire · A church that fell into the sea, scattering coffins along the beach.
• PennardGower, Swansea · A castle and village swallowed by sand dunes, blamed on a fairy curse.
• Ravenser OddSpurn Point, East Yorkshire · A medieval port that grew on a sandbank, then vanished into the sea.
• ReculverNear Herne Bay, Kent · Twin church towers saved as a landmark for sailors, after the village fell to the sea.
• Rhossili's Buried ChurchRhossili, Gower · An old church and village buried by sand below the downs.
• RosalStrathnaver, Sutherland · A township emptied in the Highland Clearances, its houses burned.
• ShipdenOff Cromer, Norfolk · A drowned village whose church tower once wrecked a passing ship.
• Slievemore Deserted VillageAchill Island, County Mayo · Around 80 stone cottages in a line along a mountainside.
• SnapNear Aldbourne, Wiltshire · A Wiltshire village emptied by a farming slump.
• St KildaOuter Hebrides · Britain's remotest islands, abandoned by their last 36 people in 1930.
• StromaPentland Firth, Caithness · An island in some of the world's fiercest tides, left by its last families in 1962.
• The Culbin SandsNear Findhorn, Moray · A rich estate buried overnight by a sandstorm.
• The Doolough Famine WalkDoolough Valley, County Mayo · A road where starving families died walking to seek help.
• The Great BlasketBlasket Islands, County Kerry · An Irish-speaking island whose people wrote some of Ireland's best-loved books.
• The Lost City of TrellechTrellech, Monmouthshire · Once one of the biggest towns in Wales, found again by a man who bought a field.
• The Lost Village of LawersLawers, Loch Tay, Perthshire · A village whose 'Lady' foretold its ruin centuries before.
• The Sands of ForvieNear Newburgh, Aberdeenshire · A village buried by a storm, said to be caused by a curse.
• The Stanford Battle Area VillagesBreckland, Norfolk · Six villages cleared for army training, their churches still inside the range.
• Tide MillsNear Newhaven, East Sussex · The ruins of a tide-powered mill village, a seaplane base and a children's hospital.
• TynehamIsle of Purbeck, Dorset · The village that was 'borrowed' by the Army in 1941 and never given back.
• West EndThruscross Reservoir, North Yorkshire · A Dales village drowned in 1966, which rises again in droughts.
• Wharram PercyYorkshire Wolds, North Yorkshire · A deserted medieval village where the dead were burned and broken to stop them rising.
• Wythburn and ArmbothThirlmere, Cumbria · Lake District hamlets drowned for Manchester, and a house with a ghostly wedding feast.