During the cold December days of 1900, three men disappeared off a remote island in the Outer Hebrides.
The lighthouse on Flannan Isles.
The region was inhospitable, but four men managed to station themselves as the watch guards for the tower.
These were Joseph Moore, Thomas Marshall, James Ducat, and Donald MacArthur.
The missing lighthouse keepers.
Photo colourized byGrant Kemp.
A table lay set for dinner that was never eaten.
They found the log book that the guards maintained, and it revealed some strange entries.
According to Marshall, the island had been under stress from a violent storm unlike any other.
The final entry of 9am suggested that the storm had ended on 15 December.
Moore soon set out to scan the surroundings.
He also suggested that the men themselves were blown off the cliff by violent winds.
Some suggested that a fight broke out, likely triggered by Ducat for being the querulous one.
Could it be murder?
But that would inevitably have led to at least one suicide.
For their inaccessibility and unforgiving terrain, the Isles were considered otherworldly by many.
Martin had recorded that the men of Lewis who visited Eilean Mor often observed peculiar customs among themselves.
Despite the mystery, Moore gathered three volunteers and went back to his duties on the island.
While maintaining the lighthouse he continued to search for clues about the disappearance.
And yet, a hundred and twenty years later, there is still no concrete answer to the mystery.
References:#Mental Floss#The Vanishing Lighthousemen of Eilean Mor#Vice#Web Archive#Pan Macmillan
