Carnewas, Bedruthan

The cliff-tops above Bedruthan beach, now part of a National Trust site, were once said to echo with the ghostly sounds of miners’ boots and the tapping of pickaxes attributed to the legendary “Knockers.” These small, withered beings with large eyes and grotesque faces were traditionally believed to inhabit old mines and tunnels. In the West Country, belief in the Knockers reportedly persisted well into the 20th century; in 1981, a local man claimed to have fled from an encounter with one.