Flannan Isles Lighthouse is a lighthouse near the highest point on Eilean Mòr. It is best known for the mysterious disappearance of its keepers in 1900. The light is produced by burning acetylene gas and has a range of 17 nautical miles; 20 miles.
About Flannan Isles Lighthouse in brief
Flannan Isles Lighthouse is a lighthouse near the highest point on Eilean Mòr. It is best known for the mysterious disappearance of its keepers in 1900. The 23-metre lighthouse was designed by David Alan Stevenson for the Northern Lighthouse Board. Construction, between 1895 and 1899, was undertaken by George Lawson of Rutherglen at a cost of £1,899 inclusive of the building of the landing places, stairs and railway tracks. The light is produced by burning acetylene gas and has a range of 17 nautical miles; 20 miles. In 1925, the lighthouse was one of the first Scottish lights to receive communications from the shore by wireless telegraphy. In the 1960s, the island’s transport system was modernised. A reinforced concrete helipad was constructed at the same time to enable maintenance visits in heavy weather. The lighthouse is now monitored from the Butt of Lewis and the shore station has been converted into flats. A further search revealed that the lamps had been cleaned and refilled. A set of oilskins was also found on the island, suggesting that one of the keepers had left the lighthouse. A volunteer seamaman and a second seaman found the lighthouse unmade and unmade. There was no sign of any keepers, neither inside the lighthouse nor anywhere on the coast of the island and three volunteer seamen set off to find them.
The search was unsuccessful and the lighthouse keeper, Joseph Moore, was put ashore alone, the main door to the compound closed and the clock stopped. He then went back up to the lighthouse with Hesperus, the relief keeper and a seaman and found that the lighthouse had not been cleaned or refilled and that none of the lighthouse keepers were there to welcome them ashore. The relief vessel was unable to sail from Breasclete, Lewis, as planned on 20 December due to adverse weather; it did not reach the island until noon on 26 December. On arrival, the crew and relief keeper found that the flagstaff had no flag, all of the usual provision boxes had been left on the landing stage for re-stocking, and more ominously, none of them were there. The railway was removed, leaving behind the concrete bed on which it had been laid to serve as a roadway for a three-wheeled, rubber-tyred cross-country vehicle powered by a 400-cubic-centimetre four-stroke engine, built by Aimers McLean of Galashiels. This had a somewhat shorter working life than the railway, becoming redundant in its turn when the helipads was constructed.
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This page is based on the article Flannan Isles Lighthouse published in Wikipedia (as of Dec. 31, 2020) and was automatically summarized using artificial intelligence.
