What Happened to the Flannan Isles Lighthouse Keepers
On a bitter cold, mid-December evening, on a small island in the Outer Hebrides of far northern Scotland, the icy seas were raging as waves crashed a hundred meters up the side of the craggy cliffs. Two of the three men who manned the isle’s lighthouse were securing equipment into the bluff face while the third watched from above. Seeing something strange moving swiftly through the water, the third man yelled a warning down to the men below. But his voice was quickly lost among the roaring wind and pounding wave. He ran to try to gain their attention but again his efforts were in vain, and worse. A vicious creature of the deep sprang high from the water just as the man reached the slippery edge. The serpent seized the man atop the ridge while at the same time his movement brought the sea to the other two and swept them from the face of the wall. The creature and the three men all disappeared into the depths without a trace, lost forever to the unforgiving sea.
Tall tales and various stories abound in both effort to explain and fancy to embellish the loss of three men from the Flannan Isles’ lighthouse in December 1900. The men never turned up. They were lost forever to the sea or whatever happened to them. There is little evidence to go on, so speculation was the rule for the interested and fascinated. Investigations were conducted and concluded with the final official supposition that the men had indeed been swept to sea while attempting to secure equipment near the edge of a cliff. There is evidence that the waves reached over 100 meters up and over 30 meters inland. There are records of last contact and ship records of no contact when there should have been.
The event has been written about repeatedly both as the basis of fictional stories as well as factual accounting. Poems and songs have been written and sung. Because so little can be known without witnesses of any kind, the mystery is still truly a mystery.
If you are interested in learning more, check out these links:
- https://blog.nrscotland.gov.uk/2023/12/12/flannan-isles-lighthouse-keepers-the-disappearance/
- https://www.history.co.uk/articles/the-flannan-isle-mystery-the-three-lighthouse-keepers-who-vanished
- https://www.historyhit.com/the-flannan-isle-mystery-when-three-lighthouse-keepers-vanished-overnight/
- https://www.rmg.co.uk/stories/blog/what-caused-disappearance-flannan-isle-lighthouse-keepers
- https://www.discoveryuk.com/mysteries/what-was-the-flannan-isle-mystery-and-what-happened-to-the-missing-eilean-mor-lighthouse-keepers/
- https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/70180/115-year-old-mystery-flannan-lighthouses-missing-keepers
- https://www.google.com/maps/place/Flannan+Isles+Lighthouse/@58.2880361,-7.5879455,8z/data=!4m6!3m5!1s0x4892999f6a7d8151:0xcce7169b80d9d881!8m2!3d58.2880361!4d-7.5879455!16s%2Fm%2F0hz3bc0?entry=ttu
- https://www.nlb.org.uk/history/flannan-isles/
- https://web.archive.org/web/20141226223630/http://www.nlb.org.uk/ourlights/history/flannan.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flannan_Isles
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outer_Hebrides
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