№ 15Islands · Slate Islands, Scotland

Easdale

The tiny island that roofed the world — now home to sixty people and the World Stone Skimming Championships.

A row of whitewashed cottages stands at the lip of a flooded slate quarry on Easdale, an orange buoy floating in the still grey water. — Pl. IICottages on the quarry lip

Dark water fills a deep abandoned slate quarry on Easdale, enclosed by sheer rock walls fringed with rough grass. — Pl. IIIThe stone-skimming arena

Photographs Craig Wallace (CC BY-SA 2.0) · M J Richardson (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Rob Farrow (CC BY-SA 2.0) · Wikimedia Commons

Easdale is the smallest permanently inhabited island of the Inner Hebrides: a few minutes by open ferry from Seil, no cars, wheelbarrows at the jetty for your luggage. For two centuries its slate went out by the shipload — 'the islands that roofed the world' — until a great storm in 1881 flooded the quarries overnight.

The drowned pits are now pools of improbable blue-green, and one of them hosts the World Stone Skimming Championships every September, when a few hundred people with strong opinions about flat slate descend on an island of sixty. The rest of the year it's whitewashed cottages, one pub, and quiet.

Field notes

The knowledge

Getting there: Ferry (on demand, minutes) from Ellenabeich on Seil — itself reached over the eighteenth-century 'Bridge over the Atlantic' south of Oban.
Best time: Summer for swimming-pool quarry colours; late September if you fancy your arm at the skimming.
Local tip: Practise your technique first: tournament rules require a genuine Easdale slate and three skips minimum.

Field position56.2930° N · 5.6600° W

Want the next one before everyone else?

One hidden British place in your inbox, most weeks. Free, no spam.