WORDS:
LISA DREWE
PHOTOS:
LISA DREWE
Bio
Lisa is an award-winning outdoor writer, paddler and guidebook author, best known for her Paddleboarding book series published by Wild Things Publishing. She has explored hundreds of routes across Britain by paddleboard and kayak and writes regularly for outdoor and paddlesports publications.
https://www.islandeering.com
Read Lisa’s prior post on ten of the best paddling routes in London and thr South East at:https://paddlerezine.com/10-best-paddling-routes-in-the-se/
Five spooky paddles
Five great paddles with a darker side – where ghosts, monsters, body snatchers and gruesome history come with the territory.
Paddle into a pitch-black tunnel once dug by Burke and Hare. Circle an island where human bones have emerged from the mud. Cross dark Welsh water above a drowned kingdom and its resident monster. Or approach a ruined castle where you may hear the screams of a ghostly ape.
For these five Halloween paddles, I’ve chosen places where the paddling is as good as the tale, with smugglers, press gangs, prisoners and quite a lot of people who came to a sticky end.
Some is history, some folklore and some sits ghoulishly in between.
Perfect for a Halloween paddle.
1 The Ghost Ape of Carew: Carew Castle from Lawrenny Quay, Pembrokeshire (8.3 km return)
Follow the rising tide from Lawrenny Quay into the winding Carew River, and Carew Castle eventually appears above the water, hiding one of Pembrokeshire’s strangest ghost stories. In the 17th century, legend says Sir Roland Rhys lived here with a Barbary ape rescued from a wrecked Spanish galleon and trained to obey his whistles.
One stormy night, Rhys ordered it to attack a merchant, who escaped but cursed his attacker. By morning, Rhys lay dead in a pool of blood and the ape had vanished. On dark nights, it is still said to return, its screams heard around the castle. You might hear it from the river too.
Access restrictions: No licence required
Starting point: Lawrenny Yacht Station, Lawrenny Quay, Lawrenny, Pembrokeshire, SA68 0PS. Grid ref. SN 012 061; What3Words invents. outs.dancer; Lat/long 51.718, -4.879.
Parking: Lay-by near café beyond Lawrenny Yacht Station (no charges).
Launching: Slipway of Lawrenny Yacht Station short walk from parking area – fees apply, pay at the yacht station.
Pitstops: Hearty home-cooked food on the waterfront at Lawrenny Arms, tel. 01834 526222.
Trips: One-way canoe tours from Pembroke Dock to Carew Castle (to late October), Paddle West, 07342 741268 www.paddlewest.co.uk.
Special points: Carew is best reached around spring HW; leave Lawrenny 2–2.5hrs before HW. At neaps, mudbanks may prevent reaching the castle. Wider estuary sections are exposed to wind – strictly no paddling in the tidal millpond. You may not be able to reach Carew during neaps.
Route Map: www.islandeering.com/paddleboarding-lawrenny-quay-to-carew-castle
2. Paddle to Deadman’s Island: Queenborough, Kent (2.5 km return)
Paddle north from Queenborough into the muddy West Swale and ahead lies a low, uninhabited strip of marsh with a name that needs no embellishment: Deadman’s Island.
More than two centuries ago, men and boys who died from disease aboard nearby prison hulks were buried here in wooden coffins; now the sea is eroding their graves, and has exposed coffin timbers and human bones at low tide.
Folklore adds red-eyed dogs, headless bodies and howls across the water – but on an island where the tide is literally uncovering the dead, the truth is more unsettling than the haunting.
Access restrictions: No licence required.
OS map: OS Explorer 149 Sittingbourne & Faversham.
Start point: Slipway, Crundell’s Wharf, north Road, Queenborough, ME11 5AD. Grid ref. TQ 906 722; What3Words: scaffold.truth.payer.
Parking: Park Road Car Park (charges), Park Road, ME11 5AA. Grid ref. TQ907722; What3Words steered.forest.roughest.
Launching: Slipway, Queenborough Hard, short walk from car park.
Pitstops: Quaint and friendly local, good roasts, The Old House at Home, tel. 01795 662463.
Huge array of beers, fabulous pizza, and great atmosphere. Admiral’s Arm Micropub, tel. 01795 668598.
Tasty lunch and cakes, Bosuns, tel. 01795 669448.
Special points: Best ± 1.5 hrs of high water to avoid the mud banks below the Hard. The whole area is low-lying and exposed to wind. Check wind and tides at www.metoffice.gov.uk at nearby Sheerness beach for local conditions.
Offshore wind: South (if heading to Deadman’s Island)
FULL Route map: www.islandeering.com/paddleboarding-queenborough-to-deadmans-island/
3. The Drowned Kingdom: Llyn Tegid, Bala
Glide across Llyn Tegid and Welsh legend says an entire lost kingdom lies beneath your board. The cruel prince Tegid Foel’s court was supposedly swallowed by water in a single night after a mysterious warning of vengeance; on moonlit nights, traces of the drowned settlement can still be glimpsed beneath the surface.
Other folklore tells of a huge coiled creature lurking below, known more recently as ‘Teggie’, Wales’s answer to Nessie. With 40 metres of dark water beneath you, you don’t need to see either to wonder what might be looking back.
Access: Self-launch day permits are purchased from the pay and display machines at the lake’s car parks.
Starting point: Lakeside, adjacent to Llyn Tegid Foreshore car park or Llangywer car park.
Parking: North west shore, Llyn Tegid Foreshore Car Park (£5/day), Pensarn Road, Bala, LL23 7SR. Grid ref. SH 921 354; What3Words: charcoal.chains.Undertone; Lat/long: 52.906, -3.605.
South shore, Maes Parcio, Llangywer (Llangower) (£5 per day); B4403, Llangywer, LL23 7DB. Grid ref. SH 902 321; What3Words: calm. marzipan.crumples; Lat/long 52.875, -3.632.
Launching: Lakeside beach, short walk from car parks.
Lessons and hire: Bala Watersports, near Foreshore car park, tel. 01678 521615 www.balawatersports.com.
Special points: Please clean board before you enter the water to prevent the spread of non-native plant and animal species. The lake is exposed to south west or north east winds, which can produce wind chop.
4. The Fort Beyond The Graves: St Helen’s, Isle of Wight (2.5 km return)
Head east from St Helen’s and the first ghost is already waiting on the shoreline: the solitary 13th-century tower of a medieval church gradually claimed by the sea. Around it lay the old burial ground, where local smuggler Dickie Dawes hid brandy, silk and tobacco beneath tombstones.
At the same time, nearby Gaggen Path recalls press gangs who seized men for ships anchored in St Helens Roads – “Get ‘em, gag ‘em”, according to local tradition. Paddle beyond the graves and Victorian St Helens Fort rises from the Solent, built to repel a French invasion that never came.
With a drowned church behind you, smugglers among the gravestones and kidnapped sailors carried out to sea, St Helens hardly needs a ghost.
Access restrictions: No licence required.
OS map: OS Explorer OL29 – Isle of Wight.
Start point: St Helen’s Beach.
Parking: St Helen’s Dulver Car Park (charges), St Helens, Ryde PO33 1XZ. Grid ref. SZ637 892; What3Words half.unfilled.cubes
Special points: Best on a rising tide, around two hours before high water, to avoid a long carry across the beach. At spring low water, a drying causeway leads towards the fort. Take a mask and snorkel to explore the seaweeds and kelp below.
Offshore wind: South west.
Full route map: www.islandeering.com/paddleboarding-st-helens-isle-of-wight/
5. The Body Snatchers Tunnel: Falkirk, Stirlingshire
Paddle into Falkirk Tunnel, and daylight disappears for 630 metres, leaving dripping rock, hanging stalactites and amplified splashes in a passage blasted through limestone two centuries ago. Among the navvies who worked here were William Burke and William Hare, later notorious for murdering people and selling their bodies for dissection.
Beyond is the Laughin’ and Greetin’ Bridge, where a smiling stone face looks east along the easier canal. In contrast, its miserable twin looks back towards the tunnel and former eleven locks – a section so difficult its contractor went bankrupt.
Paddlers tell of footsteps, voices and shadowy workers in the tunnel, but with Burke and Hare in its real history, who needs ghosts to feel haunted?
Distance: 2.5km to Laughin and Greetin Bridge return; 9km if combined with trip to Falkirk Wheel.
Access restrictions: No licence required, but please register your trip with Scottish Canals.
OS map: OS Explorer 349 – Falkirk, Cumbernauld & Livingston.
Start point: Canalside adjacent to Slamannan Road Car Park.
Parking: Slamannan Road Car Park, Falkirk, FK1 5PW (near Falkirk High Station). Grid ref. NS881 790; what3words: slurping.actor.plenty.
Special points: Wear hi-vis and carry torches and whistles in the tunnels. For the Falkirk Wheel, head west from Slamannan Road, portage one lock, then continue through Roughcastle Tunnel, exit on the RHS to see the wheel and café.
Full route map: www.islandeering.com/paddleboarding-falkirk-tunnels/
