Easdale - An Island of Slates
By Marg Greenwood
I jumped into the small open ferry boat at Ellenabeich, on Seil Island (Scottish Gaelic: Eilean na Beithich; Saoil), with about eight other passengers. Four minutes later we landed on Easdale (Scottish Gaelic: Eisdeal) where we were met by a collection of brightly-painted upturned wheelbarrows.
Two of the passengers dumped their baggage into their pink wheelbarrow and proceeded to push it to their cottage. Residents keep their wheelbarrows at the jetty so as to carry their shopping back to their cottages. Why? Because there are no cars on this tiny triangular island less than a square mile in area. Half of it consists of abandoned spoil heaps, quarry pools and remains of slate miners shelters; a sombre but fascinating post-industrial wasteland. Following the half-mile visitor trail I picked my way on narrow raised causeways of slate spoil between flooded quarries, some of them 300 feet deep, and one of which is used for the annual World Stone Skimming Championships. This draws visitors from all over the world.
On this sunny day the rich blue of calm quarry water was breathtaking. I climbed to the highest point of the island and was bowled over by remarkable contrasts; views of the Firth of Lorn and small islands to the west; the sea colour a lighter blue than the quarry water, and the uniformly grey wasteland below me.
Slates from Easdale have roofed many notable buildings including Glasgow Cathedral. Sympathetically-renovated, white-washed ex-miners cottages house the fifty or so residents, and take up the other half of the island. The islanders own their houses, but the land belongs to the non-resident owner.
In the winter of 1881 there was a terrible storm which nearly ended the slate industry of Easdale and Ellenabeich. Massive waves swept over the islands and by the next morning the quarry holes and machinery were flooded with sea water, making them unworkable. The miners cottages also suffered devastation. Two enterprising mine officials set about reinstating the quarries into as full production as possible, but the last slates to be taken from Easdale on a commercial scale were shipped in 1911.