Welcome to the Lighthouse Where People Disappear

Hey there, I've got a super eerie lighthouse tale for you, perfect for any horror fan. So, imagine a lighthouse, right? Tall, imposing, and in the middle of nowhere, it's like a gigantic, well-made camping lantern. But for some reason, lighthouses have this creepy vibe, almost as if they're haunted or cursed.

Now, there's this particular lighthouse on the Flannan Isles, off the coast of Scotland, and it's the star of our spooky story. Back in December 1900, a ship called the "Arctur" sailed past these lonely isles, and something felt really off. The lantern in the Flannan Isles lighthouse was dark, which was a major no-no. So, the captain reported it to the authorities when he made landfall a few days later.

Now, remember, this was a time way before smartphones and even regular phones were rare. So, they had to send a team to check out what was going on with the lighthouse. A ship named the "Hesperus" was dispatched to the Isles, but bad weather seriously delayed its arrival. It took a whole 11 days for them to reach the lighthouse.

When they finally got there, they were in for a major shock. James Ducat, Thomas Marshall, and Donald Macarthur, the lighthouse keepers, were nowhere to be found. The lighthouse was dead silent, its lantern unlit. The place was eerie; all the clocks had stopped, and there were unfinished meals on the table. The logbook contained entries about insane storms that weren't even reported in the area. Spooky stuff, right?

The relief team decided to search the island for clues, and they stumbled upon some weird things. The west side of the island had been wrecked by a massive storm, and the damage was so severe that it just couldn't have been caused by normal weather. Iron railings were twisted, a lockbox was smashed, and a massive boulder weighing over a ton had been moved. There were even damages to a railway line!

So, what could have caused this? Well, they considered rogue waves. These are gigantic, random waves that can be twice the size of other waves around them. They thought maybe a rogue wave had hit the island, and it would have been a disaster if someone was standing close by. But the issue with that theory was the extent of the damage, which was way beyond what the largest recorded rogue wave had ever done.

Here's where it gets interesting. The island's geography played a part. The west landing point had a sea cave that could make waves explode with force if they hit it from the right angle. So, maybe a rogue wave came in at just the right angle, explaining the damage. But again, the height of the wave was a problem. It didn't match the 60 meters of damage found on the cliffs.

Now, what's cool about this mystery is that there are so many theories. Some folks said giant seabirds carried the keepers away, others believed sea serpents dragged them to the deep, and of course, there were alien abduction rumors. You can't have a mystery without aliens, right?

But one chilling theory suggests that one of the keepers, Donald Macarthur, who was known to be a bit temperamental, might have lost it and killed his colleagues before taking his own life. Without a clear timeline, it's hard to say for sure.

So, what really happened to those lighthouse keepers on the Flannan Isles? We may never know. But it's a good reason to stay away from those isolated, creepy lighthouses. You never know what might be lurking in the shadows. Thanks for reading!