When I'm considering what stories to feature on the show, there are really only a few criteria

that must be met. Firstly, it has to be more than just an event. There must be a story,

a set of events, with which to thread and weave our way through. Secondly, that there

be something ultimately very human in the tales. And last, but by no means least, that the

peculiarity of the story has yet to be satisfactorily explained. Of all the unexplained mysteries

I have come across so far, there is one that for me has left the most indelible impression.

As far as mysteries go, you couldn't invent a better story. A story that has over time

led to some of the most extraordinary of speculations, and has since evolved a folklore all of

its own. This is that story. You're listening to unexplained, and I'm Richard McLean Smith.

The Flannin Isles, also known as the Seven Hunters, are located at the father-streetures of the

Scottish Altaheprides. A collection of seven rocky islands, they form a small but majestic

archipelago of startling isolation. To the east, approximately 70 miles away, lies the

Isle of Lewis. To the south by 40 miles, the deserted Isle of St. Kilda. And if you were

to venture west, you would need to travel more than 2,000 miles of uninterrupted ocean before

hitting the coastline of North America. The Flannin Isles are named after an Irish priest,

known as St. Flannin, who is believed to have made his home on the islands as far back as the

seventh century. The remains of the chapel in which St. Flannin is thought to have lived can

still be found on Eileen Moore, the group's largest island. Translated from Gallic to mean

simply big island, Eileen Moore rears out of the sea a vast hulk of grey black rock topped

by a rugged grassy plateau. Its sheer cliffs measuring well over 100 feet, with its highest

point reaching almost 300 feet. Although uninhabited, many crofters from nearby Lewis would regularly

visit the islands in the summer months to graze their sheep. Others would arrive to pill for eggs

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