The mere mention of a ghost town or ship wreck is often enough to trigger the interest of even the most cynical amongst us. While the term doesn’t necessarily imply that a specific place is haunted (although several are certainly reputed to be), it does conjure up images of mystery and intrigue, and prompt the visitor to imagine what life was like back in the days when people resided there, and what the chain of events was that led it to become deserted.
Tales of fortunes that have been made and lost in remote, inhospitable locations where fortune-seekers rapidly descended long ago when treasures was discovered and just as quickly deserted when no more could be found, leaving behind haunting remains of their sojourns on the landscape, sometimes just a few mullock heaps and broken shards of pottery, and at others the remnants of a more permanent settlement: crumbling stone buildings, ramshackle hotels and neglected graveyards of long-forgotten loved-ones.