Hi Steemians! Today I am sharing a wonderful post about the intriguing Easedale island off the West Coast of Scotland, one of my favourite spots in the whole World. I hope you enjoy my post! – Verity x
The short ferry journey (in fact it took 5 minutes!) to this beautiful place is from the island of Seil which is only separated from Easedale by a very small distance! There is a map here of the location so you can see whereabouts it is compared with the rest of Scotland! On the ferry ride over I saw this amazing structure which must have been the old quarry pier. I loved how the reflections weren’t quite perfect and gave little ripples out onto the sea! This island is care free so the passenger ferry is only able to take 10 people. The people living on the island must have cars on the mainland to get to the shops etc!
Easedale is only 62 acres in total, really really small, the population is 59 !! Yes 59 people live on this amazing remote island. It was once home to an enormous slate quarry and home to a community of 500 workers one of the quarries went to 300feet below sea level, you can still visit some of the quarries which now have turquoise lakes at the bottom of them! There was a huge storm in the 1850’s that flooded most of the quarries and since they had no way of getting rid of the water the slate mining came to an end. The amazing water pools in the quarries are now home to lots of birds and wildlife.
Here is an image I found on google from above which clearly shows you the scale of the island and also the turquoise water filled quarry.
Here are some of the houses that were once used as workers houses but now used as residential homes for the islanders.
On a grassy verge there was this sign post sharing the distance to many locations around the World! I loved how it was painted and put together, something I imagine tourists would love!
There are still lots of signs of the islands slate history, lots of the walls, roofs and other parts of the island are built using this amazing material. Coming from Wales myself I really love slate and think it’s so beautiful! The textures and tones are unlike anything else and once it’s polished it becomes so smooth to touch making it ideal for coffee tables and such!
There are also signs of disrepair on the island with some of the buildings falling down and left to crumble. I can’t imagine what it is like to live in such a small community, and then in such a remote area, it’s not like you can just nip out anywhere, it’s a whole boat ride and then a long drive away! Where I grew up in Wales was also very remote with the nearest large supermarket around 45 minutes away, you get used to the remoteness, but even there we weren’t cut off like Easedale is. I can also see the appeal of it though! Not having the day to day hustle and bustle life, no cars no traffic, just uninterrupted views of the amazing Scottish islands and mountains. With their being no cars or pollution the wildlife would also feel so much more at home.
These photographs were taken quite some time ago and I would really love to go back and take more, I think when I was there I was so captivated by this place and how small it was that I stopped taking so many photos! It was also rather odd as the 59 or so people who live there were obviously at home so it felt like we were intruding on their land so to speak! Taking photos of their homes and their gardens! Although it is a huge tourist destination, it is only a huge tourist destination to those who are in the area so it does limit it rather a lot! I doubt in the terms of the UK tourist attractions it rates that highly! And to be honest I wouldn’t want it too, it wouldn’t be able to cope with the volume of people, so in a way I am glad this hidden away retreat is only accessible 10 people at a time by ferry!
This tiny village did have it’s own TINY shop with a post box and a phone box outside. Obviously the port of call for all the latest island news! There were lots of leaflets and adverts hung up in the phone box. I wanted all these to be in black and white because I just felt it reflected the island life. Although when I went was around March there were plenty of flowers popping up I wanted the focus to be just on the remoteness and the isolation these people choose to live in, happily.
I was happy to see some kids who live on the island actually outside playing like kids should. I grew up without a tv until I was 14 and no phones or internet, which seems crazy now!, but I am SO very grateful I did! It gave me the childhood children I believe should have. Outside making ramps for their toy cars or playing with worms in the garden! Kids spend so much time watching tv or on their phones and it makes me so sad, I can imagine that living on an island has it’s ups and downs for children and adults but in my opinion the positives would definitely outway the negatives. Waking up and being able to explore the island safely with so much play around would be a dream come true for me. You would feel so close to nature and really, life is what you want it to be, there is no right and wrong, but naturally surely this is a more natural way of life than living in a polluted city day in day out?
I hope you have enjoyed this small series of photographs of such a unique place, if you want to know more about Easedale head over to this website http://www.easdale.org/easdale/index.htm .
- Verity x
Photography by me and copyrighted to me.
Please UPVOTE / RESTEEM / FOLLOW to support my work on Steemit - Thank you!