Old Photograph Lighthouse Flannan Isles Scotland

Old photograph of the lighthouse on the Flannan Isles located twenty miles West of the Isle of Lewis, Outer Hebrides, Scotland. Designed by David Alan Stevenson, the tower was constructed for the Northern Lighthouse Board between 1895 and 1899 and is located near the highest point on Eilean Mòr. Just over a year after it was commissioned a mysterious event took place here. The steamer Archtor on passage from Philadelphia, America, to Leith passed the islands in poor weather and noted that the light was not operational. This was reported on arrival at Oban although no immediate action seems to have been taken. The island lighthouse was manned by a three man team, Thomas Marshall, James Ducat and Donald Macarthur, with a rotating fourth man spending time on shore. The relief vessel, the lighthouse tender Hesperus, was unable to set out on a routine visit from Lewis planned for 20 December due to adverse weather and did not arrive until noon on 26 December. On arrival, the crew and relief keeper found that the flagstaff was bare of its flag, none of the usual provision boxes had been left on the landing stage for re-stocking and, more ominously, none of the lighthouse keepers were there to welcome them ashore. Jim Harvie, captain of the Hesperus, gave a strident blast on his whistle and set off a distress flare, but no reply was forthcoming. The island was scoured every corner for clues as to the fate of the keepers but no bodies were found. The Northern Lighthouse Board investigation by Robert Muirhead concluded, " From evidence which I was able to procure I was satisfied that the men had been on duty up till dinner time on Saturday the 15th of December, that they had gone down to secure a box in which the mooring ropes and landing ropes were kept, and which was secured in a crevice in the rock about 110 feet above sea level, and that an extra large sea had rushed up the face of the rock, had gone above them, and coming down with immense force, had swept them completely away.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

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