MYSTERIES UNCOVERED-TRUE STORIES OF THE PARANORMAL AND UNEXPLAINED-The Flannan Lighthouse Mystery

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The Flannan Lighthouse Mystery

The Flannan Isles are wild, treacherous, and desolate—little more than jagged rocks, clawing out of the fierce Atlantic Ocean. No wonder they are known locally as "The Seven Hunters." Perched precariously on the highest point of Eilean Mòr, the largest of the islands, is Flannan Isles Lighthouse. In the year 1900, this eerie building became the center of one of Scotland's most celebrated and enduring mysteries when three lighthouse keepers—James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald McArthur—inexplicably vanished into thin air.

"I was left on the island alone for three hours . . .
You could really feel the ghosts . . . I found it a very
frightening and sinister place. It is almost
caught—or lost—in time."
The composer Peter Maxwell Davies

The Flannan Isles lie approximately 20 miles (32km) west of Lewis, the largest island of Scotland's Western Isles. To the west, the bleak Atlantic Ocean stretches endlessly. Consisting of seven islands, the isles are sometimes referred to as "the other country" by shepherds from Lewis who winter their sheep there. The area around the isles is one of the most exposed in the UK. Waves may be as high as 50 feet (15m), sometimes up to 100 feet (30m).

The sea around the isles is particularly dangerous to navigate, and after several shipping disasters, during the 19th century a lighthouse was built to warn passing ships. Flannan Isles Lighthouse was built on the highest point of Eilean Mòr, which is little more than a large rock in the middle of the ocean, around 600 yards (549m) long by 200 yards (183m) wide. "The task of constructing it was both laborious and dangerous. The sea was seldom really calm and it was necessary to blast landing places out of the solid rock, to erect cranes, and to hoist all the materials required to the top of the cliff," wrote John Gilbert Lockhart in his 1929 book Strange Adventures of the Sea.

After four years of difficult work, the lighthouse was completed in 1899. It was built of stone to resist the Atlantic gales. It was 76 feet (23m) high, and installed at the top was a 140,000-candlepower lamp, visible for a distance of 24 nautical miles (44. 5km). There were two landing places, one to the east and one to the west, to be used according to wind direction. The lighthouse had four keepers in total: James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, Donald McArthur, and Joseph Moore. However, at any one time, one would be on shore. The reason behind this was because it was feared that one lighthouse keeper could go mad, two lighthouse keepers might kill each other, but three lighthouse keepers would keep a dynamic going for a long time in isolation.11

This reasoning had a solid basis in past experience: in 1801, tragedy had befallen two keepers, Thomas Howell and Thomas Griffith, at the Smalls Lighthouse, 25 miles (40km) off the coast of Pembrokeshire, Wales. Griffith died following an accident, and Howell was left to fend for himself alone with the decomposing corpse. The two men were well known for their fierce arguments, so Griffith was fearful of disposing of the body by throwing it into the sea, believing he would be accused of murder. He constructed a makeshift coffin, which he secured to a rail outside the lighthouse. The wild weather tore it open, and Griffith's decomposing arm flapped against the lighthouse window. Freak storms prevented a relief ship from reaching the lighthouse for weeks, by which time Howell's mental and physical sufferings had caused him to lose his mind.

The Flannan Lighthouse keepers' duties were to trim the wicks, oil the machinery, and keep the tower in repair between visits of the supply ship. Each man spent six weeks on the lighthouse and then two weeks off, leaving three keepers to man it. Every 20 days, depending on weather conditions, the relief ship, Hesperus, arrived from Oban—the nearest port on the Scottish mainland—to take one man off and deposit his replacement, along with any provisions the keepers required. During his two weeks on the mainland, the keeper would reside at the township of Breasclete, on the north side of Loch Roag, where cottages had been built for the men and their families.22

James Ducat had been reluctant to go to the Flannan Isles but was persuaded to take the role of keeper by Northern Lighthouse Board (NLB) superintendent Robert Muirhead. In 1990, Ducat's daughter Anna remembered, "[My father] said it was too dangerous, that he had a wife and four children depending on him, but Mr. Muirhead persuaded him because he had such faith in him as a good and reliable keeper." Anna recalled the day her father left well, for it was ingrained in her memory forever: "It was a lovely sunny day and my brother Arthur and I were playing in the high-walled gardens. My father came out of the house and picked each of us up in his arms and gave us a hug and a kiss, then he walked very quickly away up the road. We ran after him shouting, ‘Daddy, Daddy,' and he stopped at the road end and waited for us, picked each of us up again, and gave us another kiss. I have always wondered if he had some kind of premonition that he would never see us again."33

The first sign that something was amiss at the lighthouse was shortly after midnight on December 16, 1900. Captain Holman of the steamer Archtor was passing the Islands when he noticed that there was no light coming from the lighthouse. He radioed: "No beacon flashed from the Flannan Lighthouse, northwest of Cape Wrath." He also reported back to the NLB about the lighthouse's missing beam. The reason for this would not emerge for ten days.

On December 26, the relief ship Hesperus arrived at Eilean Mòr with fresh provisions, as well as Christmas cards and gifts from the keepers' loved ones back on shore. The boat had been delayed six days by a perilous storm that had battered the coast of Scotland. As the Hesperus approached the barren rock, the crew noticed that the flagstaff had no flag, the usual provision boxes had not been left on the landing stage for restocking, and none of the lighthouse keepers were there to welcome them ashore. In a bid to alert the keepers, the Hesperus blew its whistle and fired a rocket, which exploded high in the cool winter air. Still no one appeared.44

Captain Harvie launched a boat carrying the relieving keeper, Joseph Moore, to the island. It put in at Eilean Mòr's east landing. In a letter to the NLB, Moore recalled, "I was the first to land, leaving Mr. McCormack and his men in the boat till I should return from the lighthouse." Moore climbed apprehensively up the 160 steps to the lighthouse station. The entrance gate and outside doors were closed and the lighthouse was deserted. Inside, Moore saw that the clock had stopped, the beds were all neatly made, and despite the severe weather, the fire clearly had not been lit for some days. Gravely concerned, Moore returned to the Hesperus and related his findings. Two other men came ashore to help him search the island for the three keepers. However, no trace of them could be found.

Captain Harvie sent a telegram to the mainland that was forwarded to the NLB. It read:

"A dreadful accident has happened at Flannans. The three keepers, Ducat, Marshall, and the occasional have disappeared from the island.

"On our arrival there this afternoon no sign of life was to be seen on the Island. Fired a rocket but, as no response was made, managed to land Moore, who went up to the Station but found no Keepers there. The clocks were stopped and other signs indicated that the accident must have happened about a week ago. Poor fellows they must been blown over the cliffs or drowned trying to secure a crane or something like that.

"Night coming on, we could not wait to make something as to their fate. I have left Moore, MacDonald, Buoymaster, and two Seamen on the island to keep the light burning until you make other arrangements. Will not return to Oban until I hear from you. I have repeated this wire to Muirhead in case you are not at home. I will remain at the telegraph office tonight until it closes, if you wish to wire me."

The searchers discovered the daily record slate. The last entry was made at 8 a.m. on Saturday, December 15. Presumably, the men had vanished shortly after that time. Saturday morning's work at the lighthouse and in the living quarters had been completed. The big lamps had been trimmed, ready to be lit, and the oil fountains and canteens were full. According to the official reports, in the kitchen, everything was tidy and the dishes had been washed and put away. However, according to other reports, a meal of salted mutton and boiled potatoes lay half eaten on the table, and a chair was toppled over on the floor. Some rumors also alleged that the door to the lighthouse was locked and that Moore had a key.55

While investigating the lighthouse, the searchers discovered that Ducat's and Marshall's sea boots and oilskins—which would typically be worn outside in rough weather—were missing. However, McArthur's oilskin was still hanging on its peg. The rules of lighthouse keeping were that only two men were allowed outside the lighthouse at any one time, while one remained inside to watch over the lamp. This led to speculation that Ducat and Marshall had ventured outside while McArthur had remained inside. The sailors from the Hesperus then searched down by the east landing, where they had disembarked on the island. Finding nothing amiss, they made their way to the west landing. Here they found evidence of destruction, probably caused by strong winds. The lighthouse keepers had a wooden box containing ropes, crane handles, and other bits and pieces that they typically kept secured in a crevice in the rocks by the west landing. This box was nowhere to be found—and the searchers supposed that it had been washed away by the tides. An iron railing that ran around the platform had been ripped out and broken in several places. A large rock had fallen from the top of the cliff down onto the path.

According to contemporary reports the weather logs had been updated daily by Ducat up until December 12, when Marshall seemingly took over. However, these logs have never been verified and mysteriously disappeared, leading some to suspect some kind of cover-up. The logs allegedly read:

December 12th

Gale N. by NW. Sea lashed to a fur. Never seen such a storm. Waves very high. Tearing at the lighthouse. Everything ship-shape. James Ducat irritable. Storm is still raging, wind steady. Stormbound. Cannot go out. Ship passing and sounding foghorn. Could see the cabin lights. Ducat quiet Donald McArthur crying.

December 13th

Storm continued through the night. Wind shifted W by N. Ducat quiet. McArthur praying.

There was no entry for December 14, but there was an undated entry that was presumably from the following day:

Noon. Grey daylight. Me, Ducat, and McArthur praying. 1 p.m. Storm ended. Sea calm. God is over all.66


According to Moore, his companions weren't the praying kind, unless they were awfully afraid. He didn't think that a storm would scare them enough to warrant crying and praying. The searchers concluded that, after being confined to the lighthouse for several days, when the storm finally abated, they went to the west landing to see what damage it had caused. But what about McArthur? Did he venture outside without his wet-weather gear? And if so, why? "At this point we reach the crux of the mystery," wrote John Gilbert Lockhart. "The men are at the landing place. What disaster can overtake them there on a comparatively calm day?"

That question has never been answered, and the men's disappearance has never been fully explained. Over the past century, there have been fantastic tales of madness and murder as well as bizarre theories involving malevolent ghostly figures, violent seabirds, pirates, and even sea monsters.

For years, fishermen have sworn that they have heard the cries of shipwrecked seamen on the Flannan Isles, calling out in the dead of night for help, but when they try to seek them out, they find nobody. According to local legend, ghostly figures have been seen standing on the rocky shore with the waves crashing around them, beckoning passing ships. But when the ships get closer, the men disappear.77 John Milne, the acting principal in charge of Flannan Isles Lighthouse after the men vanished, later said that there was a "heavy presence" on the island and that on several occasions, he had turned around—expecting to see somebody there—but nobody ever was. He also claimed that he heard voices echoing in the night and somebody calling out the missing keepers' names.

Local legend also says that on the night of December 15, two sailors on a small boat called the Fair Wind spotted an ominous-looking longboat, carrying a number of men, passing their boat near the Flannan Isles. The crew said that they hailed the boat, but received no response. They also claimed that the boat appeared eerily pale and the sight of it chilled them to the bone.88

Even today, many people have felt a strange presence on the Flannan Isles, and some have even refused to set foot on them. The composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, who wrote an opera, The Lighthouse, based on the mystery, recalled, "I was taken out by a helicopter by the Northern Lighthouse Board—and I was left on the island alone for three hours. It was incredibly creepy and spooky. You could really feel the ghosts. I kept walking up and down those steps from which the men must have met their fate. I found it a very frightening and sinister place. It is almost caught—or lost—in time."99

Superstitious folk place a lot of credence on the legend of the Phantom of the Seven Hunters—a mysterious, shadowy figure with some connection to St. Flannan, a 6th-century Irish bishop who built a chapel on Eilean Mòr. According to local legend, the Phantom of the Seven Hunters was infuriated by the intrusion onto his island by the lighthouse and keepers. Their disappearance was his retribution.

The mystery of the three missing lighthouse keepers was not the only tragedy connected to the Flannan Islands. In previous years, a keeper had fallen to his death from the lantern gallery and four men had drowned when their boat had overturned while trying to approach one of the landing stages.1010

Then there are—of course—more straightforward conclusions.

NLB superintendent Robert Muirhead, who had known the missing keepers well, was saddened and baffled by their disappearance. He wrote that, "The Board has lost two of its most efficient keepers [Ducat and Marshall] and a competent Occasional [McArthur]."1111 Muirhead had visited the Flannan Isles Lighthouse just a week before the keepers were thought to have vanished. He wrote that he had "the melancholy recollection that I was the last person to shake hands with them and bid them adieu." His report concluded: "I am of opinion that the most likely explanation of the disappearance of the men is they had all gone down on the afternoon of Saturday, 15 December, to the proximity of the west landing . . . and that an unexpectedly large roller had come up on the island, and a large body of water going up higher than where they were and coming down carried them away with resistless force."

Six months earlier, the lighthouse keepers had been fined three shillings by the commissioners because improperly secured landing tackle at the west landing had been damaged during a storm. Perhaps, when severe weather lashed the island during December, the keepers feared that similar damage might have occurred again. When the storm died down, Ducat and Marshall could have gone down to the west landing to investigate any damage and make necessary repairs, leaving the "Occasional, " McArthur, alone in the lighthouse. McArthur, a local man, might have known about a freak wave pattern that occurs in the gully under the west landing stage after strong storms. This can suddenly send a massive swell crashing up the cliff face, like a tidal wave, taking everything in its path. While sitting in the lighthouse alone, perhaps it dawned on him that his colleagues were in grave danger and he ran out in just his shirt to warn them, only to be swept away with them by the sudden powerful waves.

According to Donald Macaulay, whose ancestor was McArthur, this is the most likely scenario. "I am certain the three keepers on Flannan were caught in an ocean swell which had created a huge wave that swept them away," he said.1212 Alasdair Macaulay, a reporter with BBC Radio, researched the keepers' disappearance and came to the same conclusion. While investigating the incident, he heard about a nearby woman who was hanging her washing out to dry on December 15 when she spotted a massive wall of water coming in from the west. She managed to run back inside her home before the wave hit the shore. It hit with such force that her washing line and her washing were swept away. John Love, author of A Natural History of Lighthouses, wrote, "For me, and many others, including lightkeepers themselves, there is no mystery and never has been. There is no need to invoke the sinister or the paranormal, it was purely a tragic act of nature—the men got swept away in the storm by abnormally rough seas."1313

However, this seemingly logical conclusion has not convinced everyone. Some commentators have pondered why three experienced keepers—Ducat had 22 years as a lighthouse keeper behind him—would venture out in extreme weather. If the weather was bad enough for rough tides, surely they would have stayed indoors, knowing the dangers all too well. Rumors attempting to explain the men's disappearance are still rife. Among the more sensational is that one of the keepers killed his two colleagues and threw their bodies over the cliff. Overcome with remorse, the murderous keeper then committed suicide by launching himself into the ocean.

Keith McCloskey, author of The Lighthouse: The Mystery of the Eilean Mòr Lighthouse Keepers, is unconvinced that the keepers were swept away by a large wave. Muirhead's report cited that the keepers had gone out after lunch. However, according to McCloskey, outside jobs were always conducted in the morning, particularly in winter when there were fewer hours of daylight. "The afternoons were used for rest. I got all the weather records from the meteorological office and there were prevailing winds coming from the west and a gale building up that would have been hitting the west landing. So for them to have gone out there so late in the afternoon seems a bit strange." While researching the mystery, McCloskey spoke to several lighthouse keepers, who said that, when the weather was bad, they just stayed indoors and shut up shop.

McCloskey also interviewed descendants of Donald McArthur, who confirmed that he was not a full-time lighthouse keeper and that he was only on Eilean Mòr because one of the other keepers, William Ross, had been taken ill and was on extended sick leave. "When you're stuck on a rock with two other people for that long, you can imagine tempers starting to fray. I worked on the theory that there may have been violence involved, which is how I finished the book."

Dr. John Hay, a doctor in Uig on Lewis for 24 years, is of the same opinion as McCloskey. Hay's wife's uncle, Donald Macleod, was also a lighthouse keeper and had known Ducat, Marshall, and McArthur. "Uncle Donald said one of the men was known to be unstable and morose. He may have been unhappy over the meal and a struggle broke out. He could have killed both the other men and then killed himself or the fight carried to outside the lighthouse and they were all lost over the cliff. But Uncle Donald was sure a struggle was the initial cause," he suggested.1414

The mysterious disappearance of the Flannan Lighthouse keepers inspired the 2018 movie The Vanishing, and was also referenced in 2019's The Lighthouse. In addition, The Lighthouse, an opera by Peter Maxwell Davies, books, songs, and poems have ensured that the tragedy has never been forgotten. One of the most affecting memorials is "Flannan Isle," a 1912 poem by William Gibson, written from the point of view of three men from the Hesperus who find the lighthouse deserted. It contains these lines:

"We seemed to stand for an endless while,

Though still no word was said,

Three men alive on Flannan Isle,

Who thought, on three men dead."


The Sunday Mail, October 13, 2019: "Greed, Insanity, Murder, or Swept to their Deaths in a Winter Storm?"

The Guardian, December 29, 1900: "Disaster at Lewis Lighthouse"

The Times, December 26, 1990: "Boxing Day at Flannan Rock—Life and Times"

The Age, September 21, 1935: "Mysteries of the Sea"

The Scariest Places in the World, Bob Curran

The Scariest Places in the World, Bob Curran

The Atlanta Constitution, December 16, 1979: "The Random Time Machine"

McX: Scottish X Files, Ron Halliday

The Sunday Herald, June 20, 2010: "Mystery Writers Retreat to Scotland's Creepiest Island"

Tock Lighthouses of Britain: The End of an Era? Christopher P. Nicholson

Albert Jack's Ten-Minute Mysteries, Albert Jack

The Sunday Mirror, December 2, 1999: "Riddle of Lighthouse Keepers Who Vanished From Island"

The Express, October 9, 2015: "Lighthouse Riddle Solved?"

The Scotsman, August 22, 2000: "Sea Trip Marks Centenary of Isles' Unsolved Mystery"