[blue]On December 15th 1900 the beacon in the lighthouse on Eilean More, The Flannan Islands, 15 miles west of the Outer Hebrides, Scotland, failed to illuminate. The lighthouse had been operational since December 1899 after a few years construction and had been working since.
Due to rough weather and turbulent seas the Northern Lighthouse Board could not investigate until December 26th - eleven days later.

Joseph Moore and two seamen set sail from Loch Roag in the Hesperus on Boxing Day 1900.

Upon reaching the island, they went inside the lighthouse to find out what had happened. The beds were made. The clock had stopped. Everything was tidy and neat. Only a chair lay on its side to suggest that anything strange had occurred. Two oilskins were gone and one remained.

The last entry on the slate that served as a log was for 9:00am on December 15th. Whatever happened had occurred sometime between that time and nightfall.

The three men who manned the lighthouse (James Ducat, Donald McArthur & Thomas Marshall) were never found.

A theory was put forward that a swell in the ocean around the west landing may have carried two men out to sea and the third had bolted from the lighthouse without his oilskin in an attempt to save them but had been drowned also.

Interestingly, shepherds would leave their sheep on the islands to graze prior to the lighthouse construction but would not stay themselves in fear of the 'little folk' and 'spirits' which they believed haunted the islands.

For a link to Mysterious Britain:
http://www.mysteriousbritain.co.uk/scotland/outerhebrides/ouh4.html

       Hi Loonboy,
           After reading your post,  my thoughts went right to those 3 men - I mean,  they were hardly even there any time at all.  And their families are left with a mystery.  I wonder about the theory they have,  has anyone ever been 'swept away' before?  Or, has there ever been any previous incidents?  Have the farmers lost any sheep,  or do the 'little people' only want humans off their island?  You can visit,  but you cannot stay!! >:(

     Take care,
       NORA

This is what I have on the mystery

Eilean Mor Lighthouse

Thomas Marshall was the head keeper of the Eilean Mor lighthouse off thewest of Scotland at the turn of the 20th century.  He had a crew of 2 men, James Ducat and Donald McArthur.  They lived a lonely existence, isolated as they were on the rocky outcrop for a couple of months at a time, sometimes longer of the weather was particularly inclement.  From 15 December 1900 the light ceased to function for several days so the local seafaring community decided to send out a party to investigate and on 26 December a group set out for the rock.
The crew of the rescue boat managed to get alongside the quay at the lighthouse but there was no welcoming party as there usually was.  There was no sign of life whatsoever.  They searched the small outcro and throughout the lighthouse but could find no sign of the crew.  Everything seemed to be in place, and the only strange thing they could find was a piece of unusual seaweed that none of the rescue crew had ever seen before.
They took the lighthouse log and made their way back to the mainand.  At the inquiry into the disapearance of the three lighthouse-men the last few entries of the log were read out t the court they read:
'Dec 12th: gale north by northwest.  Sea lashed to fury.  Never seen such a storm.  Waves very high.  Tearing at lighthouse.  Everything shipshape.  James Ducat irritable.'  And later:  'storm still raging, wind steady.  Stormnbound.  Cannot go out.  Ship passing sounding foghorn  Could see lights of cabins.  Ducat quiet.  McArhtur crying.
'Dec 13th:  storm continued through night.  Wind shifted west by north.  Ducat quiet.  McArthur praying.'  later, 'Noon, grey daylight.  Me, Ducat and McArthur prayed.'.
'Dec 14th:  no entry.
'Dec 15th:  Storm ended, sea calm.  God is over all.'

What had the men been so frightened of? it seems thier experience had been so distressing that at the very first opportunity they had abandoned there post and set off in the lighhouses boat.  The storm must have been exceptional because they were all used to rough seas.  There was something very unusual about the storm though.  It seems to have been extremely local, because on the island of Lewis less that 20 miles away, there was no storms.  And what about the last entry 'God is over all.'.  What did that mean?
the mystery deepens by a further piece of evidence that was submitted to the enquiry.  On the night of Dec 15, two sailors on a ship passing near to the light had been discussing why the lighthouse was in darkness when they spotted aboat being rowed by three men dressed in heavy weather gear.  By the moonlight shining through a break in the clouds they watched as the boat cut under there bow.  they called out to the men, believing them to be in difficulty, but there came no reply.  The only sound was from there rowlocks as the men set about there task in urgent fashion.  

Was the Lighthouse re-manned after the incident, and were any more unusual incidents reported?


:)

[blue]I don't know if the lighthouse was manned afterwards but it is still depicted on maps. I imagine that there is still a need for one due to the turbulent seas.

Althalus, where did you get your information? I could only find out from a few books and a couple of websites the information I incuded in the post. Your info adds new light on what I have described. Interesting stuff.  ;D[/blue]

LB,

I'm not sure where Althalus got his information from, but I did find this site that also includes a little more history and photo's;

CLICK HERE

It states that this was one of the last lighthouses to be totally automated, so it had been manned without incident up until that time (late '80s ?). I also called up a search using google and came up with about 50 seperate entries, click on the link below to go to the page,

CLICKHERE

Hope this helps.

Magikman

My version is from a book called 'Ghosts - pocket reference digest' by Geddes and Grosset, a book I got a while ago, for about £2, it details around 500 ghost cases.


It just goes to show that people will add things to a story to make it more fantastical to the listener.

And of course it also buggers up people who are trying to find out about about anything, ina serious way.

[blue]
In the intervening years it seems that the story has snowballed and gathered additional extras.
The bare bones of the matter are that three men vanished. Something happened to them. The fact that no physical signs of them remained suggest to me that they are no longer on the island and most likely got swept out to sea. Another mystery which springs up from this idea is: why did three apparently competent men get swept out to sea?

I guess unless some remains of the men are found on the island or on the seabed, we will never know...
[/blue]

Although this is a very old thread, I have done some recent research on the subject, which is the world's greatest lighthouse mystery, and think it worthwhile to add a few notes.

Full details of the Eilean Mor Lighthouse Mystery, including official statements and reports made in respect of the tragedy, are available on the offical websites. The lighthouse continued to be manned until automated in 1971. The Board of Enquiry in 1901 issued a finding that the three men must have been swept away by a "monstrous wave". This decision is considered unsatisfactory because no bodies were recovered, and the sea was calm on 15 December 1900 when the incident happened.

The idea that something unusual had occurred beforehand arose when the lighthouse journal was inspected upon the first arrival of the relief Keeper on 26 December 1900:

(1) The log entry for 12 December, and slate entries for the next three days, spoke of very severe storm force winds "the like of which I had never seen before", Principal Keeper Ducat had written. At age 43, he was a man with 20 years lighthouse experience, and the other two keepers were seasoned mariners. Upon external inspection, it was clear that severe physical damage had been inflicted by the sea on external fittings a hundred feet above sea level. On the 12 December, two of the keepers appeared to be experiencing unusual emotions, and one was crying.

(2) No gales had been logged along the coast of the Isle of Lewis only 17 miles distant during the first three weeks of December 1900. A hurricane localized over a few square miles of rocks with a lighthouse seems unlikely.

(3) The Lighthouse Board had appointed a watchman at Uig on the coast to report any signals from the lighthouse and ensure that the light was burning. The light was recorded as not being visible from 12th to 26th December, but was not reported. Whereas the light was often not visible for periods of up to four days, the Board's Inspector recommended that in future a report should be made "whenever the light cannot be seen in conditions when it ought to be possible to see it."

(3) Although many alternative suggestions have been put forward to account for the tragedy, the most likely on the documentary evidence is the "Mary Celeste" theory in which the lighthouse was overshadowed by another dimension of time and place, the keepers being retained in the other dimension when the anomaly dissipated.