"The Ballad of Flannan Isle"

"The Ballad of Flannan Isle" was a poem by Wilfred Gibson.

It was mentioned and quoted by the Fourth Doctor while leaving Fang Rock:

Aye: though we hunted high and low,

And hunted everywhere,

Of the three men's fate we found no trace

Of any kind in any place,

But a door ajar, and an untouch'd meal,

And an overtoppled chair.

(TV: Horror of Fang Rock)

Behind the scenes

In the real world the poem is known simply as Flannan Isle and deals with a mysterious incident that occurred on the Flannan Isles in 1900, when three lighthouse-keepers disappeared without explanation. The parallelism with the incident of Fang Rock is clear.