Are we alone on island in Dear Esther

I was playing the game and I near the Bothy. At that location there is a cave in the cliff to the path opposite to it where we require going. In the cave I saw a burning torch, after closely observing it for couple of seconds, I saw it moving. It seems like there was a person whose silhouette was slightly seen carrying the torch. I replayed the same level but this time it was not there. I was sure there was someone with torch. Has anyone else seen the person? Does that mean the island has other people we can find?

I too had same experience in the game as you have mentioned. But unlike you, the location was different. I was at the beach and I was about to go down from the cliff when I noticed a figure standing far away on the cliff along with a fire. I don’t think it was a torch; it looked more like a lantern. But during my second play I never saw it. I thought it was me seeing things. But I think many saw that figure.

As mentioned in above replies, I too encountered on such figure near the house at the hilltop. It was around the entrance of the house. It wasn’t carrying any torch or Lantern. As I reached near the house it disappeared. Also near the end of first scene where I was approaching towards the stone clusters, I heard sound of someone changing radio frequency. But as I neared the source of sound, it said ‘greetings’ and never was heard. There was no one there who would be creating that sound.

At the radio tower, as I came near to it, Inside the metal fencing there was a figure standing. I suppose it must be one of the shadow figures which doesn’t disappear as I neared to it. After a moment I looked away from it and again looked in its direction it wasn’t there. The sound of radio mentioned above, I too encountered it.

I think I too saw such a figure. I was climbing up the stairs of the lighthouse when I looked up to see the number of stairs remaining. At that moment I saw a black hooded figure looking at me from above. I encountered the same ghostly figure mentioned to be found at the entrance of the cottage on hill top. If you play the same scene with high volume, you can hear sound saying ‘Oh My God’ coming from the same direction of the figure.

What I found out is that every time you play the game, you won’t be able to see all the ghosts. One has to replay the game to see ghosts at different places. For example, one might find the ghost on the cliff near the sea shore in the first play and might not find the ghost at the entrance of cottage. But if played 2nd time one may not find the both ghosts but find the ghost in the cage near ariel tower.

I found another ghost in reflection of a candle. There is a stream with shallow water in chapter 3 where many candles are placed. If looked closely at one such candle, you can see a reflection of human instead of candle in water below it. If seen at reflection of other candles. The reflection is normal.

One thing I noticed is that the ghostly figures being mentioned can’t be looked at directly. They disappear if done so. They have to look at through the peripheral vision of one’s sight. Even in this way, if you lose its sight once you won’t be seeing it again. This doesn’t work for the ghost inside the fence of ariel tower and the ghost seen in reflection of candle. They can directly look at.

It seems like the developers have added the ghostly figures in the game to add the paranormal factor to the game. These figures must be seen because we have left some path half finished and it wants us to walk along the path and discover secrets along that path.