Tag: Slate Quarries

As you approach Easdale Island on the small open ferry the white cottages above the harbour look peaceful and idyllic. Like many places across the U.K. what you see today masks a past that was very, very different.  Easdale is small, not even a drop in the ocean…an island better measured in square yards rather that square miles!  The village is a cluster of now whitewashed cottages standing on rocky outcrops and grouped together on the landward side of the island……

 

 

Today the population is about 60 people, back in the early 60’s it was only 6. It is a mix of permanent residents and holiday lets. The only access is by the tiny 8 people ferry…everything needed has to be carried on to the island. There are no vehicles apart from a row of wheel barrows and hand carts waiting at the quayside so that you can carry your shopping, luggage even furniture to your cottage.

 

 

 

The clue to the Islands past first becomes apparent when you see that many of the island cottages overlook expanses of water….No, not the surrounding ocean but inland lakes (I hesitate to call them lochans)…..

These areas of water are actually flooded Slate quarries.  During the 1800’s thru till 1950 there were over 7 quarries working, employing 500 workers at there peak. In fact despite its apparent diminutive size, Easdale was Scotland’s largest producer of Slate, shipping Slate tiles from one end of the globe to the other, by steamship, Dunedin to Nova Scotia…it was a prized product.  The reason this small Island was so productive was that quarries went downwards, over 300ft below the surrounding sea level.  You get glimpses of the past on the seaward side of the island in the many abandoned quarry workings……

A visit will not disappoint, a good deal to see in such a small space, a mix of beauty with the hard scars of toil….

And amongst it all there is always somewhere to site and absorb it all, the past, the present and to ponder the future of this dot of land off the Scottish North West coast…….

4th May (Mobile Upload 5th May)

© David Oakes 2014