Easdale – A Slate Island Walk and Lunch at the Oyster Bar
A few hours.
The route
Easdale is a tiny, car-free slate island off Seil, a few minutes across the sound from Ellenabeich on a little passenger ferry.
Its flooded quarries, still pools walled in by slate, are the heart of a walk round the island, and lunch is back across the water on Ellenabeich's village square.
- Time
- About three minutes' crossing, after a short wait while the boat is called.
- The path
- Four steps lead down into the small boat.
- Where to start
- The public car park signposted to the right at the far end of Ellenabeich, a short walk from the pier.
- Set off
- Press the button in the waiting shed on the pier to call the boat.
- When to go
- All year, on the council's turn-up-and-go ferry.
- Dogs
- On a lead on Easdale.
- Toilets
- Public toilets in Ellenabeich.
Before you go
Book accommodation nearby
If you are staying over: here are ours nearest where the day starts and ends.
The day
Easdale
A morning on an island where the paths, the walls and the roofs are all slate and the sea is never out of earshot, then a warm lunch across the sound.
The Easdale ferry
Ellenabeich is the old slate village on the west side of Seil, reached on the B844 over Clachan Bridge. Leave the car in the public car park, signposted to the right at the far end of the village, a short walk from the pier; there are public toilets in the village. Argyll and Bute Council's small passenger boat sails to a timetable: press the button in the waiting shed on the pier to call it. The boat pauses after the 12.45pm sailing until 2.15pm; ring 01852 300794 to confirm. An adult return is £2.85, and four steps lead down into the boat.
About 10 min on foot
Easdale
Of all the Inner Hebrides that people live on the year round, Easdale is the smallest, and it has no cars. Quarrymen cut slate here from the mid-1600s, in pits sunk as deep as 300 feet, well below the sea, and a storm in 1881 flooded the quarries. Yellow arrows mark a path from the ferry along the shore to the drowned pools, on loose slate that shifts underfoot at first. Paths go on round the island and up its 38-metre hill, with views north over the Firth of Lorn. From 1 April to 30 October the folk museum tells the slate story.
About 5 min on foot
The ferry back to Ellenabeich
Back at Easdale's harbour, the boat crosses to Ellenabeich in about three minutes on the same return ticket, and lunch is a short walk from the pier on the other side.
About 5 min on foot
The Oyster Bar
Lunch
Lunch is at the Oyster Bar & Restaurant, a family-run bar and restaurant on Ellenabeich's village square, with a seating area at the back looking over the sea to Scarba and Jura. The cooking is pub favourites and local shellfish, from a shorter menu in the winter. Tables can be booked online, or ring 01852 300121.
If it rains
Easdale is open to the weather all the way round; on a wild day, ring the ferry before setting out.
Make it a weekend
More days out in Oban.
For further reading, before you go.
Photograph by Geoff Edwards via Google