Phun Cruise 2011: Thursday 15 September 2011 – Puilldobhrain to Cuan Sound

We went through the very narrow Easdale Sound and picked up a mooring. We visited the island of Easdale which was a slate quarry up till 1914 and has mostly been quarried away, leaving huge holes filled with water and loads of slate waste. However it contains an active village which was originally built to house the slate workers. There are no cars – the ferryman has a quad bike to move heavy things and every house has a wheelbarrow or cart to move smaller items. There is a pile of such barrows by the ferry landing.

Easdale is shortly to host the Scottish, European or World (not sure which) stone skipping championships. Apparently hundreds of people turn up to take part and to watch. It seems to me a very slow, but entertaining, way to fill up the old pools with quarry waste.

After a walk round the island, visit to the folk museum and lunch at the cafe we moved over to the other side of the channel. This feels like the mainland but is the island of Seil which is linked to the mainland by the “bridge over the Atlantic”. We took a walk round the old quarry where all that remains is a very deep pool of water. Apparently this used to be a tall rocky outcrop, which was quarried away. Quarrying then continued until the hole was enormously deep. In 1881 a great storm broke through into the deep hole, wrecking the quarry and all the equipment. Tourists come here by the busload, but it was quite quiet so we visited the “Slate Islands Heritage Centre” and suffered information overload. We then moved on to the biggest souvenir shop on the west coast, but bought nothing. On the beach we picked up some bits of slate containing good iron pyrites crystals.

In late afternoon we motored the short distance into Cuan Sound and anchored between Torsa and Luing. We made a brief trip ashore onto Torsa where we saw a group of 3 otters near the bank. My first view of otters. Follow the track on Google Maps.