Whether ravaged by natural disasters or destroyed by mankind, these unfortunate homes all disappeared from sight. From overnight sinkholes in Florida to wildfires and crumbling cliffs, these outlandish but true tales are stranger than fiction. 

Budding detectives should pay close attention to the mystery of the ‘vanishing house’ on Tory Island and see if they can work out what really happened before we reveal all.

Click or scroll on to discover these extraordinary vanishing properties...

Thanks to rising temperatures around the world, wildfires are becoming more common than ever. Uncontrolled and unpredictable, they ravage everything in their path and can destroy whole villages and towns in a matter of hours. 

From Hawaii and South Africa's Western Cape to Greece, Spain and even Siberia, recent fires have burned on a staggering scale, causing chaos, destruction and death.

A historic blaze known as the Dixie Fire took place in California in July 2021, destroying nearly one million acres (404,685 ha) of land over five counties.

Reportedly caused by a falling tree hitting electrical distribution lines operated by Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), more than 1,300 homes and buildings were said to have been destroyed. With over 963,000 acres (389,712ha) of land devastated, it was the second-largest blaze in Californian history. The Dixie Fire was active for over 100 days, according to Cal Fire, and was the first fire known to have burned across the crest of the Sierra Nevada. 

Greenville, a small Gold Rush community lying 150 miles (241km) north of Sacramento, was almost entirely destroyed in less than an hour. 

Flames razed saloons, stores, diners and banks on the town's historic Main Street. In total, around 75% of Greenville was lost, including most of the town's homes – even the local fire station burned to the ground. Miraculously, the Dixie fire didn't claim any lives, although thousands of Californians were forced to evacuate their homes.

On 29 June 2021, the temperature in the small village of Lytton, Canada officially hit 49.6ºC (121.3ºF). That's the highest temperature ever recorded in Canada, Europe and South America, and the hottest in the US outside of the southwestern states. 

The very next day, a devastating wildfire tore through the community, burning 90% of the village and killing two residents.

Located 60 miles (97km) northeast of Vancouver, Lytton was engulfed by a "wall of fire", according to the town's mayor, who was lucky to escape the inferno with his life.

"Within about 15 minutes the whole town was engulfed in flame," Mayor Polderman told the BBC. "People basically just grabbed their pets, grabbed their keys and got into their car and fled."

Just a year later, a second wildfire destroyed six homes just across the river.

Often appearing in moments and swallowing homes, cars and even people, sinkholes are formed when acidic water eats away at chalk or limestone rock beneath the ground. Heavy rainfall, poor drainage, burst water mains and construction can also cause these cavernous craters to appear. 

The entire state of Florida is built on limestone, making it particularly susceptible to sinkholes...

One particularly worrisome way your house might disappear is if it is swallowed up by the ground. Sinkholes are a very real worry for citizens of Florida, the state most at risk of sinkholes in the entire US.

Over 110 sinkholes appeared in the Dover area of Florida during a freeze event in 2010, causing the destruction of roads, homes and cultivated areas. According to the US Geological Survey, the sinkholes occurred due to farmers quickly pumping groundwater in anticipation of the freeze. 

Florida is particularly affected by sinkholes due to the limestone beneath the ground, which is slowly dissolved by natural acids in the rain and soil, according to the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.

They are also a consequence of man-made development, as the weight of buildings and the impression left by vehicles damage the protective layers of soil and aggravate weak points. Marion County, pictured here in a news report, is listed at number 4 on RiskMeter’s list of the most sinkhole-prone counties in Florida.

This sinkhole – a whopping 35 feet (10m) by 50 feet (15m) in circumference and approximately 10 feet (3m) deep – occurred following heavy rain in the city of Alachua, opening in a stormwater retention area near the residential area.

Florida Geological Survey geologist Clint Kromhout told the Orlando Sentinel that there have been just four sinkhole deaths reported in the state, and that sinkhole fatalities are “extremely rare”. 

Jeffrey Bush was asleep in bed when a giant sinkhole opened up and engulfed his bedroom on February 28, 2013. Despite the desperate attempts of his brother and emergency responders to save him, Bush did not survive the sinkhole, which measured 15 feet (5m) wide and 20 feet (6m) deep. Indeed, a second collapse swallowed rescue crews’ listening devices as they tried to locate the Floridian.

Deemed too dangerous for habitation, the house was later demolished. The notorious sinkhole returned two years later, although thankfully no one was hurt.

Powerful waves crashing against the shore is an awesome sight, but not if your house is teetering precariously on a clifftop above. Over time, waves wash away sandy soil and force their way into cracks in the cliff face, gradually turning them into caves and arches, literally undermining the land above. 

Sadly, rising sea levels and an increase in extreme weather events has led to a swell in towns being slowly swallowed by the sea...

While a beachfront home in sunny Australia might sound appealing to most, these coastal houses in New South Wales would turn that particular dream into a nightmare. Residential homes along the shoreline enjoy more than their fair share of ocean views, but are slowly being swallowed up by the sea.

The unreliable climate and rising sea levels of the Wamberal coastline mean these houses have been falling victim to coastal erosion since the 1970s.

The beachfront was hit with severe storms in July 2020, causing some homes to partially collapse into the sea.

Work began in 2023 to build a seawall to protect the beach. While owners of shorefront homes welcomed the move, other local residents believe it will cause damage to the beach and impact tourism to the area.

More idyllic coastline beckons, in the form of the village of Hemsby on Britain's Norfolk coast. However, these alluring sandy vistas are just as dangerous as the house-swallowing seas of Australia. Norfolk's appealingly soft sand and clay coastline has been naturally eroding for centuries, but climate change and the resulting rising sea levels have exacerbated the problem.

Here, the seafront houses fall prey to an ever-eroding coastline, not helped by a particularly destructive storm in 2013, which completely destroyed seven properties, and left many more damaged.   

According to the BBC, it has been estimated that Hemsby has lost 984 feet (300m) of its coastline since the 1970s, thanks to extreme winters, storms and rising tides.

In 2018, disaster struck again when the 'Beast from the East’ storm destroyed 13 homes along the seafront. In 2023, ferocious storms led to a further eight homes being torn down.

Rain, flooding, earthquakes and even volcanos can cause earth and rock to slip down hillsides, mountains and ravines.

While we might think of them happening most frequently in rural areas, they can and do take place in towns and villages – often with disastrous consequences. Each year, landslips cause between 25 and 50 deaths and $3.5 billion (£2.8bn) damage in the US alone.

In July 2021, more than 200 people in western Germany and eastern Belgium were killed when the area was hit with catastrophic floods. 

In the German town of Erftstadt-Blessem – which lies around 12 miles (20km) south west of Cologne – flash flooding caused a major landslide, which swept away properties, cars and even people.

Multiple people were trapped inside their homes and least 55 people had to be rescued after houses collapsed throughout the town. While several people were initially feared dead, no one was killed. Troops were deployed across the area to help in the wake of the disaster, which caused "dramatic and enormous" damage, according to the state premier. 

The landslide left an enormous crater in its wake, but that wasn't the only reminder that plagued the townspeople. Shockingly, Erftstadt-Blessem was inundated with visits from 'disaster tourists' for months after the catastrophe. 

We all dream of moving into the perfect home, but what happens when a dream home becomes a nightmare? Families in Draper, Utah experienced just that in April 2023, when their houses slid off their foundations and crashed hundreds of feet down a canyon. 

The homes – which were worth a combined £1.6 million ($2 million) – were thankfully empty at the time. Draper City officials had revoked the Certificates of Occupancy in October 2022, forcing the evacuation of the two homes.

This photo captures the moment one of the houses collapsed. The properties, located on East Springtime Road in the Hidden Canyon Estates, collapsed due to sliding. Engineers, building officials, and public safety personnel on site determined that two more homes were at risk and residents were evacuated.

Possible reasons for the landslide included the melting snowpack, fill material that wasn't compacted correctly or a combination of factors. 

Dust and sandstorms – like this one pictured rolling over Khartoum, Sudan – are the result of winds speeding through dry areas that don't have much plant life to anchor the earth and slow down the gusts.

Particles of sand, dust and earth are lifted into the air and combine to form massive clouds – particularly in China's Gobi Desert, the Sahara in North Africa and southwest America, where it's so bad that it earned the nickname 'the dustbowl' back in the 1930s.

While the sea poses an immediate threat to some houses, sand can be just as problematic for others. The village of Al Madam in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, has been engulfed by desert sand, leaving nothing more than rooftops in sight.

Vanishing into the dunes, the ghost town has been left uninhabited for over 30 years.

Sand can be seen flowing through windows and doors, swallowing up corridors and entire buildings. Many of the homes are believed to have been hastily deserted, with belongings left in their rooms.

Al Madam has become somewhat of a tourist attraction, however, as visitors travel to the spooky abandoned village to photograph what remains.

Another disappearing community lost to sand is the mining settlement of Kolmanskop, in the Namib Desert of Southern Africa. Producing 11.7% of the world’s diamonds, this town was one of the richest in the world in the early 1900s.

However, intensive mining had depleted the area by the 1930s. In 1928, the richest diamond fields were found on the beach terraces to the south, pushing residents to leave the town in their hordes.

Deserting their homes and belongings, the townspeople abandoned Kolmanskop in droves. By 1956, the once-affluent community with its own railway station and outdoor swimming pool had lost the fight with Mother Nature.

Sand dunes have blown through doors and windows, engulfing every building within the village, such as this hospital pictured. In 2002, a private company won funding to transform the abandoned village into a tourist attraction and several of the historic buildings have since been restored.

With times changing, fewer and fewer people can afford the upkeep of a large, extravagant home and many have been razed as a result. 

Nowhere has this been more profoundly felt than the UK, where an estimated 1,200 country houses have been demolished in England alone since 1900. This is due to numerous factors, including war and the changing social landscape, which prioritises infrastructure such as new motorways. 

Cassiobury House is stunning country house that fell victim to demolition. Located in Cassiobury Park in Watford, England, the Tudor building was built in 1546 for Sir Richard Morrison before undergoing remodelling in the 17th and 19th centuries.

Cassiobury House was slowly sold off for housing development purposes and was ultimately knocked down in 1927. 

Pictured here in 2005, the Cassiobury grounds are now a housing estate, while the surrounding Cassiobury Park was turned into the main public open space in Watford. 

As was the case with many country houses that were sold off, assets from the estate were bought up by museums and collections, including artworks and other valuable possessions.

The seat of the Pagets, Earls of Uxbridge and Marquesses of Anglesey, from 1546 to 1935, Beaudesert Hall in Staffordshire was last occupied by Henry Paget, the 5th Marquess of Anglesey.

Known as the ‘Dancing Marquess’ for his snake-like dance routines, he wasn’t so adept with his finances and died bankrupt in 1904. His Beaudesert Estate was then sold off in 1932, having remained in the family for nearly 400 years.

Today, Beaudesert exists in name and ruins alone. Perhaps financially cursed, even the contractors booked to demolish the struggling stately home went bust before they could complete the job.

The ruins were protected with Grade II-listed building status in 1953, after Lord Angelsey donated 124 acres (50ha) in 1937, to be used recreationally by scouts and guides and for other, similar purposes.

Whether it's due to desertion, illegal building or urban expansion, governments everywhere routinely demolish properties so the old can make way for the new. 

However, for every building that's destroyed, someone is losing a home, business or beloved landmark. Let's take a look at a couple...

During the Spanish construction boom of 2001-2008, hundreds of thousands of illegal homes were built across the country. Bought in good faith by locals and expats a like, many of the homes built without the correct permits were the subject of decade-long legal battles, while others were simply demolished.

Meanwhile, properties like these charming homes in Cho Vito, Tenerife fell foul of other local laws and paid a sad price...

According to the Spanish government, the pretty white and green homes violated Spain's 1988 Coastal Law, which restricts private ownership along coastlines in order to combat coastal erosion and urbanisation. 

Despite a long battle and vociferous protest from the homes' inhabitants, they were evicted – forcibly in some cases – and the 31 houses that made up the tiny fishing village were demolished. 

After sitting unfinished for seven years, 15 high-rise buildings in Kunming, China were destroyed in just 45 seconds. Captured here by New China TV, onlookers videoed the controlled demolition project as each building disappeared into rubble.

According to China’s state-run Xinhua News, 4.6 tons (4.2tn) of explosives were used to demolish the abandoned skyscrapers, carefully placed at 85,000 blasting points within the buildings.

Neighbouring buildings and shops were evacuated as part of a detailed, coordinated plan. But why were they demolished in the first place?

Authorities decided to destroy the buildings as they had been left abandoned, with their basements submerged in water. Taiwan News stated that the buildings, worth CN¥1 billion ($138m/£109m), were part of an unfinished housing project initiated in 2011.

While the other ‘vanishing’ buildings can be explained away as a result of natural disaster or human intervention, this next case was – for a time – a genuine mystery. So much so that the tale of this disappearing residence in Ireland became the topic of a BBC 4 radio series, ‘The House That Vanished’.

A resident of Tory Island, Ireland, filmmaker Neville Presho’s house was there one day, gone the next...

The remote and rugged Tory Island is home to around 120 residents. The isle captivated Neville Presho when he first visited the region in 1970 and he went on to purchase the 150-year-old house on the coastline in the early 80s, before moving to New Zealand.

Everything seemed fine until he returned to the island in 1994 and discovered that his house had vanished and that the site where it had once resided was now occupied by a septic tank and a hotel car park. The story was so bizarre, it was turned into a book by journalist Anton McCabe. The cover, shown here, shows the doomed house.

Presho swiftly took the hotel owner, Patrick Doohan, to court to find out exactly what had happened. The hotel and it's carpark can be seen here on the far right.

The judge ruled that Doohan should pay the damages and be liable for costs, and awarded Presho €46,000 ($49.4k/£39k), which he deemed insufficient, saying it "wouldn’t build a chicken coop", according to BBC News. 

It was unusual for an ‘outsider’ to purchase property on Tory Island, but the filmmaker had been smitten. As such, he was understandably devastated by what happened. Presho suffered greatly as a result and was sectioned in mental health wards several times.

"It would be fair to say it destroyed his life and seriously impacted on his family's life," McCabe told the BBC.

The high court discovered that the house had been bulldozed or damaged by fire in 1993 and subsequently removed over the following nine months, before Mr Presho returned in July 1994.

Unsurprisingly, the mysterious Wicker Man-esque story has captured the imagination of readers around the world.

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