What Caused the Eilean Mor Lighthouse Mystery?

Outer Hebrides Island’s Lighthousekeepers Vanished Without a Trace

Oct 26, 2009

Although the island had a reputation of being haunted, the official verdict was that the men were swept away by an enormous wave caused by a fierce storm. Were they?

In 1899, a lighthouse was built on the largest Flannen Island, Eilean Mor, twenty miles from the nearest land, Lewis Island. The islands are an archipelago of seven small grassy rocks off the Scottish coast. There was no communication channel between Eilean Mor and the mainland.

The Ancient Monuments Commission lists Eilean Mor’s ruins from past times as a chapel and abode, giving rise to its ghostly reputation; however accounts of the hauntings aren’t given. Four lighthouse keepers worked in six-week shifts; three men on duty, the fourth, on a two week break. Shortly before Christmas 1900, three men disappeared.

Bizarre Discovery on Eilean Mor

On December 26, 1900, Joseph Moore sailed on the Hesperus to the island to relieve one of the men only to discover that Thomas Marshall, James Ducat, and Donald McArthur had vanished. The lighthouse was cold and dark. No one answered his repeated calls. He went back to the schooner and formed a search party. Two pairs of oilskins and boots were missing. Lanterns had been filled for the evening. The kitchen door was open and a chair with a jacket draped over its back was overturned. The table had food on it. They read the log book, hoping to find clues as to what had happened, in vain. The entries were from December 12th to the 15th.

Moore was puzzled by the entry stating the men prayed because they had never done so, not even during a ferocious tempest. Even more enigmatic were the facts that people on Lewis Island experienced no December storms and the SS Archer passed by the island on the 15th and almost ran aground because the lighthouse beams were not illuminated.

Official Explanation of Eilean Mor Mystery

The Northern Lighthouse Board, NLB, of Enquiry ignored evidence and testimony. The verdict was that the three men had been swept away by a monstrous wave while they worked outside during a fierce storm.

This eliminated the possibility that the NLB could be held liable for the tort of not providing the lighthouse keepers with communication to the mainland.

Theories about Eilean Mor’s Keepers Disappearance

Some speculate that one of the men went insane, killed the others, then plunged into the sea. Nothing evidenced this. The keepers were known to be reasonable, so what would make one of them become berserk? What prompted the notes in the log that the men prayed and cried?

Scottish journalist Iain Campbell was visiting Eilean Mor on a calm day. He was near the west landing when the sea rose seventy feet above the jetty. It returned to normal in about a minute. Was this caused by a tidal abnormality or an underground earthquake? The lighthouse keeper told him the disturbance happened from time to time and that men standing on the jetty were nearly swept to sea.

One of the doomed keepers wasn’t wearing oil skins, so it can be deduced he was inside. Does it make sense that he saw his mates being swept away, then flung himself into the waters? These theories don’t provide answers and raise more questions. The only known fact is that three men vanished from the Eilean Mor lighthouse in December 1900 without a trace.

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