10 Deserted Islands With Bizarre and Forgotten Histories

Throughout history, remote islands have become the unwitting stages for some of humanity’s strangest dramas. From desperate castaways to voluntary exiles, these isolated patches of land have witnessed extraordinary tales of survival, tragedy, and mystery. While fictional accounts like Robinson Crusoe have captured our imagination, the real stories behind these deserted islands often prove equally fascinating – and sometimes far more disturbing. These forgotten places hold secrets that reveal both the resilience of the human spirit and the sometimes dark consequences of isolation.

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10The Isle of Demons

In the frigid waters off Newfoundland lies what was once known as the Isle of Demons, where French noblewoman Marguerite de la Rocque endured one of history’s most harrowing marooning stories. In 1542, after being caught having an affair during a sea expedition, Marguerite was dumped on this desolate island by the ship’s captain, who happened to be her own relative. With only her lover and a servant for company, she cobbled together a basic shelter against the island’s brutal conditions and wildlife. Things got even tougher when Marguerite gave birth during their exile, and within 16 months, her lover, servant, and newborn all died. Against crazy odds, she managed to survive alone for two years by hunting whatever she could until fishermen finally rescued her in 1544 and took her back to Europe. Local indigenous people had named it the Isle of Demons because they believed it crawled with evil spirits – something Marguerite probably started to believe herself after all she went through.

9Más a Tierra (Robinson Crusoe Island)

Most folks know this Chilean island was home to Alexander Selkirk, the guy who inspired Robinson Crusoe, but the weird circumstances behind his abandonment aren’t as well-known. After getting into a heated argument with his captain over their ship’s condition, Selkirk basically demanded to be left on the island in 1704, thinking the vessel would sink anyway and other ships would pass by soon. Boy, did he regret that decision when no rescue showed up. During his four years alone, Selkirk’s mind started to unravel. He resorted to dancing with cats and goats just to keep himself sane. He built a couple of huts from pimento trees, hunted wild goats, and trained cats to protect him from rats that would literally chew on his feet while he slept. When an English privateer finally spotted him in 1709, the crew barely recognized him as human; he couldn’t really speak properly anymore and moved around like an animal.

8Roatan Island

This Honduran island became the unwilling home of Philip Ashton, a Massachusetts fisherman with one of history’s wildest survival stories. After being snatched by the notorious pirate Edward Low in 1722, Ashton suffered through nine brutal months of captivity before managing to escape to uninhabited Roatan. For sixteen months, he scraped by on a diet of mostly fruit and raw turtle eggs in complete isolation. His solitude got briefly interrupted when another castaway Englishman showed up and handed him some crucial supplies – a knife, gun, and powder – only to vanish mysteriously days later. Ashton’s ordeal included nasty bouts of illness, run-ins with venomous snakes, and even an attack by Spanish forces. When a British ship finally rescued him in 1724, his survival story seemed so far-fetched that many people didn’t believe him, despite his detailed account. To this day, the island is supposedly haunted by rumors of buried pirate treasure and the ghosts of treasure hunters who died looking for it.

7Elephant Island

Few places showcase human endurance like Antarctica’s Elephant Island, where Ernest Shackleton and his crew found themselves stranded during their disastrous 1914 expedition. After their ship Endurance got crushed by pack ice, the 28-man crew drifted on ice floes for five hellish months before washing up on this barren, glacier-covered rock. While Shackleton and five others set off on an 800-mile journey in an open boat to find help, the remaining 22 guys survived for over four months by flipping their lifeboats to create makeshift shelters and eating whatever they could catch – seal blubber, penguin meat, and seaweed. They kept their sanity through daily routines, including regular “cleanings” where they’d pick lice from each other’s clothes. Amazingly, despite freezing temperatures regularly hitting below -20°F and near starvation, every single man made it out alive. These days, the island remains virtually uninhabitable, with vicious winds and treacherous terrain keeping all but the most hardcore explorers at bay.

6Palmyra Atoll

About 1,000 miles south of Hawaii sits Palmyra Atoll, which has earned a reputation as one of the world’s most cursed islands. While technically uninhabited (except for a handful of researchers), this remote Pacific spot has racked up a disturbing history of weird deaths, disappearances, and unexplainable phenomena. Its creepy reputation hit peak notoriety in 1974 when the yacht Sea Wind arrived with two couples aboard – but only one couple ever left. Malcolm and Eleanor Graham were brutally murdered, their bodies never fully recovered. The surviving couple was eventually convicted of killing them, but lots of details about what really happened remain murky. Beyond this infamous case, sailors report bizarre electromagnetic anomalies that kill their equipment, compasses that spin wildly, and an overwhelming feeling of being watched. World War II soldiers stationed there experienced unusually high rates of suicide and mental breakdowns. Despite its picture-perfect tropical beauty, the island has somehow resisted numerous attempts at development, with several wealthy investors mysteriously abandoning multi-