Four-Minute Ferry

Easdale is about eleven miles south of Oban. In its heyday, as a producer of slate for roofs throughout the British Empire, there were 500 working in seven quarries. The last cuttings were made in the 1950s and within ten years the population of the island had fallen to four. Now it is has become the smallest of the Inner Hebrides with a permanent resident population and that numbers a remarkable 60. Their access is by the ferry with its crossing-time of four minutes.

Scottish Islands Explorer - continues to quarry away at information and illustration