Author: Raymond Moton
The Flannan Isles Lighthouse is a 75 feet lighthouse that was designed by David Alan Stevenson for the Northern Lighthouse Board. The island is part of the Flannan Isles in the Outer Hebrides off the west coast of mainland Scotland. The lighthouse is on the highest point top of the island, Eilean Mor.
The area is best known for the mysterious disappearance of the light keepers in 1900. According
to an article published on ASPire, entitled “When Three Isn’t a Crowd: The Mystery of Eilean
Mor” the origins of the lighthouse of Flannan Isles holds a supernatural present. The supranatural
element is seen in the island bad reputation for many centuries. The Flannan Isles Lighthouse has
been permanently deserted for over a thousand years, since the time of St Flannan and his Celtic
flock first owed the place. The original habitants of the island, the shepherds, sometimes brought
their sheep across to graze on the island for that day. The shepherds would never stay the night
as they feared “the spirits they believed lived on the island.” The strong supernatural history of
the island let to more of a connection to theories and conspiracies of the mysterious
disappearance of the light keepers than a usual mystery.
The first record that something was abnormal on the Flannan Isles was on December 15,
1900. The steamer Archtor, on a passage from Philadelphia to Leith, is directed to the Flannan
Isles due to the poor weather conditions in the area. There were no lights from the lighthouse that
help lead the boat to the island. When the Archtor docked in Leith on December 18, 1900. The
crew reported the strange incident to the Northern Lighthouse Board. The lighthouse was
manned by three men: James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald McArthur, with a rotating
fourth man (Joseph Moore) spending time on shore.
McArthur, with a rotating fourth man (Joseph Moore) spending time on shore.
investigative the situation. The relief vessel, the lighthouse tender Hesperus, was send to the
Flannan Isles Lighthouse to investigative the three lightkeepers disappearance. The relief vessel
was unable to sail from Breasclete to Lewis, as planned on December 20, 1900 due to poor
weather in the area. Jim Harvie, the captain of Hesperus, attempted to reach the lighthouse
keepers by blowing the ship's whistle and firing a flare, but was unsuccessful. The Hesperus
didn’t reach the island until December 26, 1990. The arrival of the ship shows no signs of the
lightkeepers to be found. When the crew reached the shore, all that could be found of the three
lightkeepers were evidence of the thunderstorm. According to a website posted on Northern
Lighthouse Board, entitled “Flannan Isles” the evidence of the thunderstorm is found on the
West side of the island where a broken box at 108 feet above sea level that had its contents
spread out. The contents spread out include “West landing mooring ropes and tackle...ropes it
appears, got washed out of it, they lie strewn on the rocks near the crane”. The other evidence of
the thunderstorm comes from the iron railings bent over, the iron railway by the path was
wrenched out of its concrete, and a rock weighing more than a ton had been displaced. This
information further put into question how the evidence relates to the three lighthouse keepers'
disappearance.
Joseph Moore (lighthouse keeper) is another witness in finding evidence of the Flannan
Isles Lighthouse disappearance. Joseph Moore found out that the three lighthouse keepers were
gone mysteriously from their positions of the lighthouse. He met with the Hesperus crew to find
the missing three lighthouse keepers. The website posted on Northern Lighthouse Board, entitled
“Flannan Isles” found further information of the disappearance of the three lighthouse keepers.
Joseph Moore found the “entrance door and gate closed, but the kitchen door opened”. Next,
Joseph Moore entered the kichen to found “the fireplace and saw that the fire had not lit for some
days.” Then, Joseph Moore entered the rooms to found “the beds empty just as they left them in
the early morning”. The last place he entered himself is the lightroom where everything was in
proper order “the lamp was cleaned... the fountain is full...blinds on the windows.” Joseph Moore
met with the Hesperus crew to find the same mess on the West side of the island.
Robert Muirhead (Northern Lighthouse Board superintendent) was sent to conduct the
official investigation into the case of the missing three lighthouse keepers. He took the reports
from the Hesperus crew and Joseph Moore into consideration when going into the investigation.
He didn’t find anything beyond the information already reported until he found the lighthouse’s
logs of the three lighthouse keepers. Robert Muirhead immediately noticed that the last few days
of entries of the lighthouse logs were unusual. According to an article published on Historic UK,
entitled “The Mysterious Disappearance of the Eilean Mor Lighthouse Keepers” the log on the
December 12th shows Thomas Marshall, the second assistant, wrote of “severe winds the likes of
which I have never seen before in twenty years”. The log also noticed that James Ducat, the
Principal Keeper, had been “very quiet” and that the third assistant, William McArthur, had been
“crying”. Robert Muirhead found these details unusual because these lighthouse keepers was
known as experienced season mariners, and rough weather conditions shouldn’t be unusual for
them. The log entries on the December 13th-17th sees the three lighthouse keepers praying that
the storm is over. The final log entry states, “Storm ended, sea calm. God is over all.” Robert
Muirhead found these details unusual because there were no reported storms on the island on the
12th, 13th and 14th of December. In fact, the weather was calm, and the storms that harm the
island didn’t hit until December 17th. The evidence that Robert Muirhead reported to the
Northern Lighthouse Board was seen as unconvincing to some people who saw his explanation.
Despite numerous amount of evidence that come out of the disappearance of the three
lighthouse keepers. No one really have an exact answer to what happened to the three lighthouse
keepers. A lack of a distinct answer to the mystery lead to many theories and speculation of the
disappearance from Flannan Isles Lighthouse that range from foreign invaders capturing the men
to alien abductions. While the mystery is still unsolved, the disappearance of the three
lightkeepers help influence the curiosity of human nature to find out what happen to the three
lighthouse keepers.
Works cited:
Ben Johnson. “The Mysterious Disappearance of the Eilean Mor Lighthouse Keepers.” Historic
UK, 21 Apr. 2021, www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-Eilean-Mor-
Lighthouse-Mystery. Accessed 23 Oct. 2021.
Envirozentinel63. “When Three Isn’t a Crowd: The Mystery of Eilean Mor.” ASPire, 6 Feb.
2018, sentinel63.wordpress.com/2016/06/10/when-three-isnt-a-crowd-the-mystery-of-
eilean-mor. Accessed 22 Oct. 2021.
"Flannan Isles Lighthouse - The Unsolved Mystery Of The Disappearance Of Three Keepers
Working There." 8 Sept. 2020, Amazing World Reality, www.amazingworldreality.com/2020/09/
lannan-isles-lighthouse-unsolved.html. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.
“Flannan Isles.” Northern Lighthouse Board, 30 June. 2021, www.nlb.org.uk/history/flannanisles. Accessed 20 Oct. 2021.
Mike Merritt. "Has Mystery of Flannan Isles Finally Been Solved." 10 Oct. 2015, The Sunday
Post, www.sundaypost.com/news/scottish-news/has-mystery-of-flannan-isles-finally-
been-solved. Accessed 25 Oct. 2021.
Links for further research:
Proquest
https://www.proquest.com/historical-newspapers/article-6-no-title/docview/109116257/se-
2?accountid=25998
The newspaper article is about explaining the history of the three lighthouse keepers’
disappearance that contribute to the making opera production of, “The Lighthouse”. This article
shows a perception of what real life evidence expired the tales of the events in the Flannan Isles
lighthouse disappearance.
Historic UK
www.historic-uk.com/HistoryUK/HistoryofScotland/The-Eilean-Mor-Lighthouse-Mystery
The website is about explaining the history of the three lighthouse keepers' disappearance
that contribute to the making of the theories of the true event. The website uses logs of the three
lighthouse keepers to show their point of view in the mystery of their disappearance. The website
uses the logs to build on speculation on what happened to the lighthouse keepers coupled with
the evidence found on the island.
Atlas Obscura
Flannan Isle Lighthouse – Outer Hebrides, Scotland - Atlas Obscura
The website is about explaining the history of the three lighthouse keepers' disappearance
that contribute to the making of the theories of the true event. The website uses the history and
supernatural elements of the disappearance of the three lighthouse keepers on Flannan Isles for
an increase of tourism in this area.
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