The Ghostly Children of Dunsford

Nestled in Dunsford’s Teign Valley, where South Devon’s emerald hills cradle the whispering River Teen, the Teen Valley Hotel—once Teignview Manor—harbours a haunting legacy beneath its ivy-draped charm, where the ghostly laughter of children, lost to plague in 1685, echoes through time. In the backyard, where they once chased each other in sunlit games, their spectral forms flicker on autumn nights, illuminated by an unearthly glow, one child’s cry—“You can’t catch me!”—ringing with eerie joy, as witnessed by a farmer in 1898 and countless others since. Bound to the cobbled stones where their innocence thrived, these playful spirits weave a bittersweet tapestry of sorrow and resilience, their giggles a gentle reminder that even death cannot silence the heart of childhood.