The world is a large place and something or the other that is strange always keeps happening. Amidst all these many mysterious incidents are often pushed to the shadows while the more significant ones take the spotlight. For example, everyone knows about the disappearance of the Malaysian airplane but very few are aware are of a similar act of vanishing, equally creepy and unsolved even today. I’m speaking about the case of Eilean Mor, where three men had disappeared from without a trace, more than a hundred years ago.
Eilean Mor is an island about 60 miles away from the main coast of Scotland and is surrounded by the North Atlantic Sea on all sides. It spans about only 43 acres in total and has cliffs on one side ranging from 150 to 200 feet tall.
History of Eilean Mor
This small island in the middle of nowhere is entirely deserted apart from three buildings—a lighthouse, the ruins of a small chapel, and the residence of the lighthouse keepers. It is believed that although no one ever occupied the island of Eilean Mor, it was somewhat of a pilgrimage spot many years back. People used to go there to rear sheep, collects eggs and so on. They used to follow many specific rituals in this pilgrimage. It is said that when these people set sail for the islands, they would turn back in the direction of the wind changed. They followed strict customs on how the animals were to be killed and so, a new member of the group would not be allowed to work without a mentor until he learned all the rituals fully.
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The Chapel was built sometime in the seventeenth century by an Irish monk, but before it could be fully completed, the monk and his group fled the island. They reported being haunted by magical beings which they called the ‘Little People’. Moreover, even people who went to the island to rear sheep referred to the place as the ‘Other Country’ and would refuse to stay there overnight.
The Infamous Lighthouse
Despite these rumors relating to the occult, the Northern Lighthouse Board decided to build a lighthouse in that island in 1895. This was intended for all the ships who went past that area so that they would not lose their way or struggle with the rocky cliffs. It took four years to complete the lighthouse which stood at a height of 275 feet above sea level. A small living quarter was also made for the lighthouse keepers. The crew of the keepers consisted of four members. Only three people stayed at the island at any one point while the other went back for a period of two weeks to rest and recover from the isolation of the island.
What Happened in Eilean Mor?
The mysterious case that surrounds Eilean Mor took place only a year after the construction of the lighthouse. It was a seemingly normal evening as a ship headed towards the island, containing the fourth member coming back from his break, along with the captain of the ship, a couple of other members of the boat, and boxes full of essentials that would be restocked for the keepers. The first sign that they got of something being amiss in the island was the lack of a flag on the flagpole of the lighthouse that would usually be present. As they reached nearer, they noticed that the boxes that would need to be restocked were also not there. The crew sent blasts of the ship horn to give and receive a signal, but the lighthouse and the island remained inactive.
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By this time the members of the ship were sure that something was wrong, and the fourth keeper got down on the island to check where the other keepers were. He was in for a surprise. Even after doing a thorough search of the lighthouse and of the living quarters, no trace of the other three was found. Their beds were made like they were each morning, and everything looked normal. One of the keepers had even left his coat hanging on the peg.
The Northern Lighthouse Board was informed of this unusual incident and investigation was carried out. The only sign of something being wrong was a broken iron rack of the steam trolley. A box that was used to store ropes had also vanished. Other than these, nothing was amiss, and nothing indicated towards what might have happened to those three keepers. The logbook where keepers wrote down the reports for each day had been filled dutifully for all days and stopped on the 15th of December after an account of the usual morning events.
Theories Surrounding the Event
Till this day, no one knows what really happened to those three lighthouse keepers of Eilean Mor. There are of course a lot of theories. Many believe that severe weather might have washed them off to the sea, or maybe some exceptionally high waves may have carried them away. These seem like the most probable explanations although the weather in Eilean Mor on the day of their disappearance was not so bad as to have vanished three men in a way that even their bodies were not found anywhere.
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Given the cursed history of Eilean Mor, there are of course theories that are a bit more unusual. Many think that these three men were abducted by aliens or taken away by a supernatural cult that had been associated with this island for centuries. Apparently, many years after the incident took place, a log entry from the keepers’ diary also emerged, where they spoke about a terrifying storm that had left them crying. However, one of the keepers then went on to write that the storm had ended and that ‘God was over all’, which leaves one wondering whether their very last entry had been written by them after their death, somehow. It also gave rise to the belief that one of the keepers had killed the other two in a fit of rage and sickness of isolation, before killing himself, although no weapons or signs of violence were found.
It might also be the case that after many years the ‘Little People’ the monk and his people had feared had returned, but it seems like no one will ever find out what really happened in Eilean Mor on that fateful day.
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