Dreaming of an island far, far away? Many of these isles may look idyllic but each one has been all but deserted by humanity. Some harbor dark secrets while others have been rendered inhospitable by Mother Nature. Here we reveal the stories behind the planet's most curious abandoned islands.

Hirta is the largest island in the remote St Kilda archipelago, a string of Scottish isles at the far edge of the Outer Hebrides. It’s thought that Hirta could have been settled for some 2,000 years before it was finally abandoned in the 1930s. Life for St Kildans would have been tough – they faced bleak winters and lived by hunting the island’s seabirds. Today the island is home to the largest seabird colony in this part of the Atlantic.

The community on Hirta survived for many hundreds of years but by the late 1800s, increased tourism posed a threat to the islanders’ traditional way of life. Attempts to modernize the island were futile and flimsy houses built at the end of the 19th century could not withstand St Kilda’s merciless weather. Residents began to leave the island and by the 1930s, the last inhabitants left Hirta behind. Tourists can usually visit the far-off isles and spot the crumbling stone houses and the Soay sheep that call the island home. 

This isle in the Venetian Lagoon has a haunting history. It’s also known as Plague Island because in the late 1700s and early 1800s it was used to quarantine plague victims. Numerous islands in the Venetian Lagoon were used for this purpose at this time, and Poveglia reportedly held hundreds of thousands of sufferers. Legend has it the isle is still haunted by the deceased.

Over the years, the island has served more gruesome purposes and Napoleon reportedly used its expanse to store weapons. In the 1920s, a psychiatric hospital was opened on the island and rumor has it that one evil doctor tortured and murdered patients. Today, the eerie hospital building still stands and the entire island is off limits to the public.

Another abandoned island in the Venetian Lagoon, Lazzaretto Nuovo has its own story to tell. Settlers are thought to have been here as early as the Bronze Age and the island was also later owned by the Benedictine monks of San Giorgio Maggiore. In the 15th century, a lazaretto (a hospital for sufferers of contagious diseases) was founded and many patients thought to carry the plague were quarantined here. Tezon Grande (pictured), the island's main building, today holds artifacts from this period and beyond. 

Beyond the 1700s, the island was no longer used for its medical facilities. Instead, under Napoleon's rule, the island served as a military defense with gunpowder towers and fortified walls. It was then used by the Italian army right up until 1975 when it was finally abandoned. It's now popular with visitors who come to see curious remnants of the island's past and to pore over exhibitions at the Tezon Grande.

Unruly greenery and ramshackle buildings characterize North Brother Island, an abandoned isle in the Big Apple’s East River. In the 1880s, the island became home to the Riverside Hospital which treated people with contagious diseases. Mary Mallon, better known as “Typhoid Mary”, is the hospital's most infamous patient – thought to be the first carrier of the bacteria causing typhoid fever, Mallon was quarantined here and eventually died on the island.

More tragedies struck North Brother Island over the years. In 1904, the General Slocum steamboat caught fire in the East River right near the island, claiming more than 1,000 lives. Throughout the first half of the 20th century, Riverside Hospital also acted as a care center for veterans of the Second World War and then as a drug rehabilitation center. The island has been abandoned since the 1960s and today only scientists and academics are permitted ashore.

Ross Island, in India's Andaman Islands, may appear idyllic but it harbors a dark history. Settlement was first attempted by the British way back in the 1780s but changeable weather and inhospitable conditions claimed numerous lives and any settlement was soon abandoned. It wasn't until 1857 that the British would once again lay claim to this land. At this time, the British Empire decided to use Ross Island as a penal colony for Indian mutineers.

In the years that followed, prisoners were moved to neighboring isles and Ross Island was built up as an administrative headquarters and a place for senior officers to reside. The island boasted mansions and churches, plus a power station allowing residents to live in relative luxury. By the 1940s, in the face of a changing political landscape, the prison was closed and any remaining troops left the island. Now Mother Nature rules the land, with vines covering crumbling buildings and deer roaming freely between them.

You might know this isle off the Japanese coast as "Rabbit Island". Ōkunoshima has earned this nickname due to the large population of bunnies that call it home. But despite how much Ōkunoshima's fluffy four-legged residents delight tourists today, the island has a macabre past. Any human inhabitants were evacuated from the island during the Second World War when Ōkunoshima was used to make poisonous gas. Though its factories were abandoned after the war, fear of contamination kept the island from being occupied again. 

Over the years, the island has remained deserted except, of course, from the brave bunnies that roam Ōkunoshima. Though their presence remains a mystery, it's thought they could be descendants of lab rabbits used in the poisonous gas factories and a lack of predators has allowed them to flourish. Today Ōkunoshima is popular with tourists who usually come to pet the fearless bunnies and take in the eerie ruins of the gas plant and power station (pictured left).

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The island of Inishmurray floats in Donegal Bay some four miles (6.4km) off the coast of County Sligo. Residents lived upon the island until 1948 when Inishmurray was finally abandoned in favor of the mainland. Visitors to the island can still spot the remains of this community including some deserted homes and the old schoolhouse.

However, Inishmurray's history stretches much further back than the 20th century. The island is also home to the well-preserved remains of a Christian monastic settlement thought to date back to the 6th century. The complex consists of large stone walls and the remains of churches and altars. While it has been decades since Inishmurray has had any permanent inhabitants, visitors usually come to take in the monastic ruins and to spot the island's birdlife.

The ruins on deserted Pollepel Island are the symbol of one man’s lofty ambitions. This island was never home to an entire thriving community – instead it was the domain of Scottish businessman Francis Bannerman who founded a company selling military equipment, ammunition and more. In the early 1900s, Bannerman bought Pollepel Island as a safe place to store his wares and set about building the fairy-tale Scottish castle that stands crumbling on the island today.

The lavish castle-style building was used for business purposes while the island was also home to a more humble residence where Bannerman lived with his family. However, construction of the castle was never actually completed. Bannerman's death in 1918 (as well as a series of damaging fires) meant that his vision for the castle would never truly be realized and Pollepel Island was eventually abandoned. Today the Bannerman Castle Trust maintains the site.

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Though little is known about the tribespeople who originally inhabited Tetepare, it's thought that they had a completely unique culture, language and set of customs, distinct from those of neighboring islands. But, for reasons that are still uncertain, these people either abandoned Tetepare or were captured circa 1860. Possible explanations include the outbreak of disease or the work of bloodthirsty headhunters who raided the island.

The islands remained abandoned into the 20th century, though a coconut plantation was established in Tetepare's west in the early 1900s. However, this too was deserted during the Second World War. Today the biodiverse island is still uninhabited by humans but it's far from forgotten. Tetepare is an important area of conservation, home to three different species of turtle, the coconut crab, bottlenose dolphins and more.

This stark island some 40 miles (64km) off the coast of Alaska is a rather hostile place. King Island is characterized by craggy cliffs and a bleak climate, but that hasn't stopped some hardy folks from settling it over the years. Local Inupiat peoples built a village named Ukivok on the cliff side. The peoples, who became known as Ukivokmiut, would spend their winters in this precarious village hunting seals and other marine mammals, before heading back to the mainland for summer.

However, the migrating population dwindled after the island's school was closed, meaning youngsters were forced to stay on the mainland over winter. Since it was difficult for the population's older members to hunt alone, the Ukivokmiut eventually stopped spending their winters on King Island, leaving it abandoned. Now all that remains are the rickety, wind-battered houses perched on the cliff face.

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Bikini Atoll looks every bit the Pacific paradise, all sandy shores and turquoise ocean, but historical events mean it remains uninhabited. In the late 1940s and 1950s, the atoll was used as a nuclear test site by the United States. At this time, the atoll had more than 100 residents who were all persuaded to move to another island with the promise that they would be able to return home soon.

The islanders were evacuated (pictured here) but they were sadly never able to come back. Bikini Atoll's groundwater and soil became contaminated during the tests and it was not safe for the island's original residents to return home. Today the atoll's corals and marine life are showing signs of recovery and a few caretakers work on the island (though they must bring food and water provisions with them from elsewhere). The atoll remains otherwise deserted.

It's little wonder that this terrifying island is abandoned. It's better known by its nickname "Snake Island" and its expanse is home to thousands of golden lancehead vipers (bothrops insularis), which are among the deadliest snakes in the world. A bite from these critically endangered critters can kill victims quickly and, according to local stories, numerous people have met this macabre fate.

Many reports suggest that this island was inhabited in the early 20th century by a handful of people enlisted to operate the island's lighthouse. However, it's also rumored that the final lighthouse keeper was killed by the vipers and the island has remained free of humans ever since. Now Ilha da Queimada Grande is only really visited by the Brazilian navy or brave scientific researchers who have sought permission from the government.

A remote isle in the East Pacific, this overseas French territory was once the location of a guano (seabird faeces) mine, which was operated by a British company in conjunction with Mexican authorities. Workers were brought here in the early 20th century with the understanding that sustenance and supplies would be regularly delivered to them from overseas. Clipperton Island itself had no resources to offer the laborers.

However, as the Mexican Civil War escalated, the marooned workers were forgotten about and nearly all of them tragically starved to death. The lone male survivor, Victoriano Álvarez, terrorized the women and children until he was eventually murdered by one of the female islanders. Finally, in 1917, those who survived were rescued and the island remains deserted today, save for species like the brown booby and the Clipperton crab (pictured).

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No human inhabitants have ever truly conquered the Antipodes Islands, a forbidding string of volcanic isles in the Southern Ocean. Europeans descended on the islands in the 1800s in order to hunt seals, but the land proved extremely inhospitable and the settlement wasn't able to flourish. Human attempts to populate the islands have been consistently short-lived over the centuries.

In 1893, the British ship Spirit of the Dawn famously sank close to the shores of the Antipodes Islands and the castaway crew were forced to exist here for months, living off the land until the remaining survivors were eventually rescued. Today the island has no human inhabitants and is populated instead with seabirds, penguins and several species of seal.

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McNabs Island in Nova Scotia is named for Peter McNab, who settled this island in the 1780s and developed the land. The McNab family lived on the isle up until 1934 when descendent Ellen McNab sold off her portion of land before passing away. Following this, the population dwindled over the decades and now it remains all but abandoned.

The island proved useful during the Second World War, dotted as it is with hulking forts used by the military over the years. Now the island is open to visitors who usually come to explore the lush expanse with crumbling ruins. There are abandoned homes, military forts and canons, and a moldering soda factory. A lighthouse also watches over the coast.

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Hashima Island, also known as Battleship Island since its shape roughly resembles a ship, can be found off the coast of Nagasaki. Now a dilapidated collection of high-rises, the isle was once abuzz with people. Built up by the Mitsubishi Corporation, it had a huge part to play in Japan’s industrialization through the 1900s. There was a rich coal deposit beneath the island and an underwater coal mine thrived throughout the 20th century.

In its heyday, around the 1940s and 1950s, thousands of people lived on the isle and industry boomed. It’s reported, though, that hundreds of the mine workers were laborers from Korea who were forced to work here. The island's natural resources eventually dried up, the mines closed in the 1970s and the island was abandoned. Now organized tours usually take curious visitors to the island with its crumbling apartment blocks, overgrown courtyards and deserted streets.

This rocky island lies off the shores of Crete, close to the pretty town of Plaka. Its story begins in the 16th century when an imposing fortress was built here by the Venetians, who ruled the isle for more than 150 years. Having already conquered the rest of Crete, the Ottomans eventually took over the island in 1715. Spinalonga's striking defensive walls still impress tourists today. However, it's the island's more recent past that is truly chilling.

From the early 1900s, the rugged island was used as a leper colony with hundreds of sufferers finding themselves banished on Spinalonga. It's reported that only a single doctor operated here. The colony remained in operation until 1957, following the discovery of a treatment for the disease in the 1940s. Spinalonga remained all but forgotten until the 1980s when Victoria Hislop set her popular novel The Island here. Tourists usually come from far and wide to wander the atmospheric ruins and learn more about the island's poignant history.