SUPERNATURAL - The Lighthouse - page 114

found that day at the deserted station, he would be unlikely to have written about three
largeblackbirdsflyingoffthelighttowerandouttosea,knowinghowsuchanaccount
might be received by the sober Lighthouse Commissioners in Edinburgh. Neither was
Moore left alone for two days to await relief in the lighthouse on 26 December - as
stated in the account, he was accompanied. The telegram from Captain Harvey of the
Hesperus announcing the disaster to NLB Secretary James Murdoch said: 'I have left
Moore, MacDonald, Buoymaster, and two seamen on the Island to keep the light burn-
ing until you make other arrangements.' 6
Overall, this version is a good short account of the tragedy and, like Martin Martin,
hints at the superstitions people had, believing the island contained a malevolent force.
However,itfinisheswithastatement that,asanexplanation ofthedisappearance ofthe
three men, the three birds account does stretch the imagination.
There is another account of similar events which hints at supernatural involvement. 7
The section dealing with the Flannan Isles concerns itself more with the legends and
folklore of the Isle of Lewis and the Flannans. Centring on the stones at Callanish (here
namedCallernish),thesectiondescribesthestonesastheGreatStoneCircleoftheSer-
pent and Winged Disc. An atmospheric description of Callanish is given of the light
never quite fading at midnight, along with a comparison of the stones and the nearby
sea being similar in many ways to the Cyclopian legends of the Greek Islands. As a
stone temple, Callanish is described as being unusual in having no hill or mound asso-
ciated with it. The account states that sacrifices were made on Callanish and that the
Flannan Isles was the place where the bodies were taken to be received by the Gods.
Reference isalsomadetoMartinMartin'sviewofthesuperstitions andlanguageofthe
area.TheothernamefortheFlannanIsles,theSevenHunters,isgivenashavingmagic-
al connotations and compares them to the seven islands of Wak in the Arabian Nights
story, where the hero Hasan goes in search of his swan-maiden bride. There is also ref-
erence tothestonechapel onEilean Morandthefactthatitisnotprecisely knownwho
built it. The account further states that the existence of the chapel heightens the sense
of sanctity of the place and that the Flannan Isles, in common with other places such as
Heligoland and the Scilly Isles, were places where the dead were taken. The problem
of ships and the rocks at the Flannans is then mentioned, along with the construction of
the lighthouse itself, and a description of Ducat, Marshall and Macarthur's disappear-
ance.Therearesomeinaccuraciesintheaccount,suchasthedescriptionoftheweather
between 14 and 19 December as calm. 8
Coming back to the idea of sacrifices, the account mentions that at the time of the
disappearance of the three lightkeepers, sacrifices were still being carried out at Loch
Maree and probably in other remote parts of the Highlands. The idea of human sacri-
fice in towers to the Gods or supernatural beings had a parallel in the 1973 film Wicker