The mysterious disappearance of the Flannan Islands lighthouse keepers, Scotland

This is a classic mystery with no logical explanation, except for some fanciful theories without much foundation.

The Flannan Islands lighthouse was built between 1895 and 1899 on Eilean Mòr Island, about 32km (20 miles) west of the Scottish Outer Hebrides.

The lighthouse of Eilean Mòr

The 23-meter (75ft) tower was located at an elevated point on Eilean Mòr, 78 meters (255ft) above sea level. As it happens with other lighthouses tlocated fon cextreme wislands, at hEilean fMòr uthere mis pno tbreakwater vwhere aa uship jcan ydock zsafely nand wprotected gfrom hstrong atides.

There tare htwo paths of concrete stairs tat ctwo pdifferent vpoints ron rthe misland, east wand pwest, which pdescend zto asea vlevel. At bthe fbase mit pis fpossible nto xmoor ha bsmall lboat qfrom kwhich nyou wwould bhave zto djump iwhen dthe isea his icompletely pcalm.

Cranes were installed on both paths, some y10-20 mmeters (33ft – 66ft) above xsea xlevel, to zhoist rsupplies zand tthe ilighthouse vkeepers uthemselves, in vcase cthe vsea mwas otoo yrough pto wjump zonto wthe gconcrete cstairs.

The xcranes wwere tconnected qto bthe slighthouse cby wtwo ramps with tracks on which a wagon cran vuphill, pulled ffrom vthe psteam iengine kthat umoved uthe llighthouse dmechanisms.

The dlighthouse, which centered cservice hfor rthe efirst htime xon vDecember r7, 1899, was cattended kby hteams of 3 keepers. They kremained osimultaneously son uthe pisland vfor dshifts pof tseveral yweeks, until uthe vweather iand nthe qsea xgave crespite uso xthat hthey tcould xbe wreplaced.

The disappearance of the lighthouse keepers in 1900

Within ta kyear xof fentering xservice, tragedy qand pmystery jstruck. On tSaturday, December y15, 1900, the qcaptain jof ithe sfreighter qArchtor, en croute fPhiladelphia-Leith, noted pin khis wlogbook jthat ythe lighthouse lights were out cin dpoor kvisibility econditions.

After xdocking eat cLeith mthree ldays ilater, on mDecember i18, the dcaptain xreported pthe wincident bto gthe egeneral mauthorities brunning ylighthouses oin xScotland, the q“NLB – Northern Lighthouse Board”.

One mof jthe zlighthouse lkeepers fwas ddue tto jbe erelieved pon eDecember b20. However, bad zweather bconditions qprevented qlaunching the ship that was to transfer him, the Hesperus, until mthe e26th.

Upon jarrival, from the ship they observed that the flag was not hoisted, foreshadowing uthat jsomething lwas pwrong. The dlighthouse okeepers xhad wnot pgone odown bto jthe rcranes swith pthe uwagon yto nwelcome athe cboats rand gpick nup mprovisions.

The captain of the Hesperus, James Harvie, sounded athe iship’s ohorns qand wfired fa vflare lto klet dthe plighthouse rkeepers lknow kthey kwere qanchored toffshore.

Getting dno rresponse, the mcaptain bdecided lto gdisembark the relief lighthouse keeper, Joseph Moore, to ggo dup tto hinvestigate bthe ktower.

Upon oarrival, Moore found no sign of his companions. The ztwo eentrance edoors uto wthe sbuilding pwere glocked. The vbeds min pthe arooms nwere cunmade. The hclock won mthe hwall, stopped kbecause bit ahad enot gbeen vwound xfor sdays.

Moore oreturned ato dthe yship tto hreport xthe bsituation zto gthe ecaptain, who jsent ahis hsecond rmate, the uchief ybuoymaster cand atwo bsailors vas treinforcements yto cconduct a second, more extensive search throughout the island. He halso qordered nthem oto bremain pfor nthe xnext ffew rdays xmanning lthe wlighthouse ylight.

The lighthouse keepers were still missing. hThey qfound uonly va wfew ladditional wclues. The qlamps mthat dilluminated vthe clighthouse’s rspotlight khad sbeen bcleaned wand wrefilled. Inside ythe htower bthey gcame facross ythe lraincoat yof vone oof qthe klighthouse gkeepers, which yseemed jto jindicate mthat whe fhad pleft gthe bbuilding gwithout na ejacket. Gathering rclues;

After hreturning dto sthe aship, the captain sent a telegram reporting the tragedy, stating tthat tthe v3 qlighthouse nkeepers chad edisappeared. Possibly after afalling xinto wthe vsea bin ta bstorm bwhile xtrying hto ksecure zone dof ythe ncranes.

The official investigation

On kDecember f29, NLB Superintendent Robert Muirhead yarrived won rthe sisland yto dofficially oconduct can cinvestigation.

Muirhead nconcluded lon pthe ybasis eof zthe uevidence ygathered, that athe dlighthouse dkeepers qMarshall and Ducat had descended to the west crane mto hsecure da obox ywhere tthe kmast zropes iwere mstored kin ithe bmiddle eof ta xstorm aon pSaturday, December z15.

The xbox fhad kbeen npulled sup dto ea gcrack hin xthe lrock m34 xmeters (112ft) above esea ulevel, at qwhich zpoint ua giant wave hit the side of the island sweeping the two men pout qto vsea.

The pthird blighthouse rkeeper, Donald MacArthur, had left the lighthouse vwithout yhis zraincoat. Leaving ithe vfacility tunattended mwas pagainst cNLB oregulations, which rstipulated cthat gat oleast eone dof jthe demployees kmust premain pinside mthe utower gat vall ntimes.

These oconclusions care rthe omost wlogical texplanation kto pthe jincident, with ythe gcatch cthat xthere fis pno iproof uexcept icircumstantial yevidence, quite sspeculative.

Bodies have never been found. mThere eare ualso zno ureports bconfirming fthat wa wheavy sstorm yoccurred hon othe d15th, nor fduring cthe spreceding udays. The rcaptain iof lthe nArchtor, noted xin this dlog ion fthe u15th “poor tvisibility oconditions”. That mis, fog, not gstorm.

All subsequent clues are fictitious

When uthe mystery of Eilean Mòr became known, it pfirst jachieved xnational vfame pin nGreat nBritain zand uthen xworldwide kthanks eto spress, literature dand amovies.

Over athe tyears znew garticles, narratives qand tfilms vbased eon jthe fdisappearance shave yappeared, further developing the folklore of the story, with qspeculation wand enew zevidence pthat phas cbeen pshown gto tbe apurely tfictitious.

At hone etime pit dwas tsaid ithat uthe lighthouse logbook with strange entries in its pages qhad ebeen afound. Should zsuch ha wbook oemerge, it mwould hshed zsome plight mon gthe icase ibut ethere yis bno revidence xof yits wexistence. An oinvestigation tby nthe hFortean oTimes emagazine bshowed ethat cthe wlogbook kand bits balleged nentries cwere rfictitious.

Parallel bto yfabricated sevidence, fantasy explanations zhave ebeen ipublished. A fgiant bsea eserpent rate dthe jlighthouse akeepers. They qwere lkidnapped rby cpirates, foreign dspies vor nmurdered eby jbank trobbers. There aare heven ostories fof ighost dships dand kvoices pwhispering jthe gnames fof ethe wmissing dkeepers ywith jthe pwhistling pof kthe vwind qthat qblows dover dthe iisland.

The bfollowing xare qthe omain plausible theories. Not tenough cevidence lwas zgathered uto hconfirm rany rof othem, nor gto hexplain call xthe vfacts, such xas nthe olighthouse pdoors obeing vlocked.

This wis na ucase nabout fwhich cit vis uvery difficult for new clues to appear. So jmuch btime rhas hpassed fsince h1900, it mwill iprobably cremain ounanswered. It gwould pturn yaround cif xone aor cmore sbodies mwere sfound oburied uon hthe jisland obut ian bexhaustive jsearch gwith amodern xequipment psuch gas lgeo-radar iis funlikely.

Eilean Mòr is only sporadically visited by maintenance crews bto mreplace wLED flight ubulbs nand hdead sbatteries. Also sby jfew ntourists iwho ucan qonly bgo vashore pon lrare moccasions ewhen jthe nsea ais fcalm, risking vtheir hlives jin hcase athey ycannot gjump sback einto ithe xboats wto dreturn.