The disappearance of the Flannan Isles lighthouse keepers
Scotland, December 1900
This case is a work of fiction. The characters, names, places and events in the game do not portray real people. The account below is a factual summary, based on public sources, of the case that served as inspiration.
On 15 December 1900, a ship passing the Flannan Isles, in the Outer Hebrides, noticed that the light on Eilean Mòr was out. When the relief boat arrived days later, the three keepers had vanished. The lamp was clean and ready, meals had been put away, and an oilskin coat was still on its hook.
The official inquiry concluded that the three men had probably been swept away by a wave while trying to secure equipment during a storm. There was never any evidence of a crime, but the mystery became a poem, a song and a legend. The illegal trade in rare bird eggs, which the game uses as a motive, is a real crime that British police have fought since the 1990s through what is known as Operation Easter.
Sources
In the game
The Light Gone Out
Isle of Carraig, west coast of Scotland, 6:15 am. Angus MacLeod, lighthouse keeper for thirty years, was found dead on the rocks at the foot of the lighthouse.
The game borrows the setting: a lighthouse on a Scottish island, a dark light noticed from the sea and an isolation that leaves only a few people as suspects. Characters, crime and outcome are fiction.
