Ellenabeich

Being 'up north' (in comparison to Tayvallich where we were staying) we decided to travel a few more miles, across the 'bridge over the Atlantic' to the island of Seil, and the village of Ellenabeich.

Today Ellenabeich is a peaceful conservation village but its photogenic exterior hides a busier more industrial past, for the area used to be the site of huge slate quarries. 

Heading south lies a chain of island often marked on maps as 'the Slate Islands'; all once producers of this in-demand roofing material.  The area must have been very different from today. 

At Ellenabeich there are still signs of the past all around - lagoons that now fill the quarries,  remains of a huge dock, winching equipment, and, of course, those workmen's cottages that now look so quaint. 

In one of the cottages there's a museum that tells about the village's history but it was closed by the time we arrived. This dummy outside shows how smaller pieces of slate were cut by hand, though I'm not sure that wearing shoes on the wrong feet was part of the normal dress.

And a ferry takes visitors over to nearby Easdale island; another place filled with memories of the past. I've been before but we were a bit too late in the day this time.