The Eilean Mor Lighthouse Mystery SOLVED? [PART 1]

Why does Da-da feel like he's going to be asked to go here?

Time to solve a 115-year-old mystery? Da-da tried, but his explorations just deepened the mystery -- and frankly made Da-da a little nervous to go on. Whole books have been written about The Eilean Mor Lighthouse Mystery, where three lighthouse keepers simply vanished in mid-December of the year 1900. Da-da would love to tell you that this mystery is solved, but... well, Da-da may have just made matters worse. Almost for fun, he asked two psychics what happened. He wasn't all that thrilled with what he found out.

First, let's recap the details via this excellent write-up at the blog, Unsolved Mystery:

The Disappearance at Eilean Mor Lighthouse

The Outer Hebrides island chain off the western coast of Scotland is one of the most remote locations in the world, bedrock formed of ancient metamorphic rock home to the Carloway Broch, and Loch Nessand its famous monster. The Flannan Isles, also known as the Seven Hunters, are seven uninhabited islands on the western-most edge of the chain; and in December 1900, the largest of these — Eilean Mor (Gaelic for “Big Island”) — became the site of an unsolved mystery when three lighthouse keepers vanished without any apparent explanation.The Atlantic Ocean off the Flannan Isles is rough and treacherous. So many ships had been lost there that in 1895, a lighthouse was finally built on Eilean Mor – an undertaking of considerable logistical difficulty as the building materials had to be hauled up a 150 foot cliff (45 meters.) Once construction was finished, three lighthouse keepers were installed: head keeper James Ducat, first assistant Thomas Marshall, and second assistant Donald McArthur. All three men were seasoned veterans of the storms; Ducat, 43, had over 20 years experience at lighthouse keeping, while Marshall and McArthur were both seamen.The keepers worked on a rotating watch of 14 days; food and supplies were brought to them as weather permitted. In mid-December, one of the three was due to return to the mainland for a break, to be replaced by a keeper named Joseph Moore.

The lighthouse had been operating for little over a year when on December 14, 1900, a tremendous storm waylaid the Scottish coast, battering the Eilean Mor lighthouse and surrounding countryside. The very next evening, December 15, Captain Holman, skipper of the SS Archer sailing nearby, noted that the Eilean Mor lighthouse had gone dark and reported this to the nearest shore station by Morse code.

Stormy weather began churning the seas again the very next day. It wasn’t until one day after Christmas that the weather calmed sufficiently to allow the SS Hesperes to land Joseph Moore on the island for his replacement shift. The keeper who he was slated to replace was supposed to be waiting for him on the island’s east landing. But no one waited at the jetty which Moore noted had been terribly damaged by the storms.

Panicked, Moore ran to the lighthouse. There he found the ashes of a cold fireplace and an upended chair as though the person sitting in it had stood up very quickly. On the kitchen table sat a half eaten meal of salted mutton and potatoes. Missing was a toolbox, and two sets of oilskins and boots belonging to James Ducat and Thomas Marshall. The final entry in the logbook, recorded by James Ducat at 9am on December 15, read, “Storm ended, sea calm. God is over all.”

No other signs of the missing men were ever found.

When Moore and the Hesperes crew explored the island, they found that even more damage had been sustained by the windward side of the island. The jetty was twisted; the ropes and jibs of the platform used to hoist supplies scattered about; the iron staircase on the side of the cliff twisted and misshapen.

An official investigation launched into the disappearance of the lighthouse keepers concluded that the men might have taken advantage of the break in the weather to explore the damage on the western side of the island. There they may have been swept away by a giant wave. But that conclusion doesn’t explain the signs of hurried leave-taking found in the men’s living quarters.

Various interpretations were offered. Perhaps one of the men had been driven mad by the inclement weather and had turned on his colleagues, before hurling himself in the ocean. Perhaps mold had grown in the men’s food, poisoning it with a hallucinogenic substance.
Local inhabitants offer another explanation.

Eilean Mor was once a Viking outpost, and a ghostly Viking longboat was said to haunt the local seas. Indeed, the crew of the Fairwin – one of the vessels sent out to investigate why the lighthouse had gone out on December 15 – reported seeing a ghostly longboat on that night, crewed by warriors with faces the color of bone: Three men in oilskin raingear were rowing that boat. Could the lighthouse keepers have run afoul of ancient ghosts?

Whatever the truth, the mysterious disappearance of the Eilean Mor lighthouse keepers remains one of Scotland’s most enduring mysteries.

And with that, perhaps it should stay a mystery.

Enter the Psychics

Scores of theories and books have been presented over the years on this mystery, yet nothing has come to light to even begin to explain what happened -- that is, until now.

Before Da-da reviewed the psychics' findings, his first thought was that the lighthouse crew had indeed accidently ingested some contaminated food, as was assumed in the infamous Le Pain Maudit ("Cursed Bread") Mystery where the entire French village of Pont-Saint Esprit went mad, before it was discovered to have been a CIA LSD experiment. But the psychics' findings were more mysterious, if not equally sinister.

Having spent years vetting various sensitive folks (no one seems to like the term "psychic" much), Da-da asked two very talented psychics to help solve the Eilean Mor Lighthouse Mystery. Da-da's questions were simple: What happened to the lighthouse keepers of Eilean Mor? Is there something historically strange about that piece of land?

Psychic #1:

Eerie. The weather is calm. Guys out of their minds, mad. Sweating, hallucinating, like something is chasing them. They jumped off the cliff, into the water and died. The land is cursed? Something underneath is dark, energetically wrong. Some negative force radiates out and causes people to go crazy. Hallucinations, fear, panic, anything negative. Like water dripping, it starts small, then escalates into something huge in the mind.

Psychic #2:

I see someone being chased by bees... only there are no bees. It's all in their mind. They're waving at nothing, running, terrified. Something... some kind of dark energy from below is making them crazy. They jump into the water... gone.

But that's not all the psychics had on this topic. Da-da will save that for later.

Denouement?

Da-da doesn't mean to be coy, here. This information may beg the insertion of a brave team of researchers and psychics to actually spend some quality time on Eilean Mor, but that may not be as necessary as one would think. Da-da has an idea of what may have caused this particular mania which he learned about in other research... but he's going to save that for Part Two, as it's so bizarre and unbelievable -- and frankly a little terrifying -- as to warrant it's own post. Factually, Da-da would prefer NOT to write about this, as he doesn't want people poking around this particular... thing. Yes, even Da-da has trouble with this one. How's that for mysterious?

Da-da certainly didn't expect this result. He meant this post to begin 2015, but after viewing the findings and follow-up, he's been dragging his feet about writing it up, as it literally dredges up a huge and ancient and mythic can of worms with big nasty teeth that precious few responsible adults want brought to the surface. There may not be a Part 2. Some questions don't need to be answered until certain societies have grown up a bit, and this may be one of them. What the world needs now is indeed love. And restraint.

Some mysteries might need to stay mysteries.