Easdale Island.
 

So Mr Limey and I are on holiday. We have travelled from the Scottish island on which we live to another one, Easdale, for a week's R&R. It is one of the so-called Slate Islands: http://www.slateislands.org.uk/index.html.
We have been very fortunate with the weather so far, and it is spectacularly beautiful.
Easdale is the smallest permanently inhabited Scottish island - a population of around 65.
Pics to follow ....


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http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...166d3d66db.jpg
Pic taken from the highest point on the island, 124ft above sea - level. See the group of houses about I in the middle of the pic? We're staying in the left-hand one.
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...1f7f4c812a.jpg
More views from up there.
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...93bd8cb57d.jpg
The "lagoon" that you can see is a former slate quarry.

That's pretty cool.

does the population dramatically increase during the summer time?

Oh I'm sure it does. And there'll be loads of day trippers. The ferry journey takes three minutes and there's a great wee pub/tearoom on the island.

Easdale is an island off an island. To get here you must drive over the "Bridge over the Atlantic".
http://tapatalk.imageshack.com/v2/14...cd204c9bcf.jpg
(Not my pic).
And then get the wee ferry.

That looks perfect for skipping stones.

Are the flooded quarries filled with fresh water or salt water? And if it's freshwater, is that the water supply for the island?

Had to get away from the hustle and bustle of Arran?

Yes, UT, that's about it! Where do you go for a holiday when you live on a holiday island? To an even smaller one!
And Glatt, funny you should mention that: http://www.stoneskimming.com
:)


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I think the lagoons are filled with salt water. One of the causes of the end of slate quarrying here was an exceptionally high tide which flooded the quarries at the end of the nineteenth century (I think). That and changes in construction and transportation markets.


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I was on Bermuda and I asked one of the taxi drivers where they go on vacation, if they live on the island where people go on vacation. "New York City"

Small islands and their infrastructure fascinate me. Fresh water, for example, is a significant issue. As is sewage.

An island I've visited a lot in my life is Monhegan Island off Maine. It's about the same size as Easdale, and they get their water from a muddy freshwater marsh, and they just pipe their raw sewage directly out into the ocean because there isn't enough soil for a proper septic system. I've only recently become aware of the sewage solution because they don't talk about it at all, and the pipes are well hidden. But it's pretty gross to think about. No evidence to be seen though.

For a long time on Arran the sewage solution was pipes out to sea, but now it's septic tanks (or cesspits) or sewage plants in the bigger villages. I'll see what I can find out about Easdale. The notice in this cottage says they have a septic tank, but the island is mostly slate so you maybe right. To be fair, gross though it may seem, there's a lot of Atlantic, and. It much sewage, whether from Easdale alone, oral loathe other islands ....


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WTF?

Spoken into your phone perhaps? "oral loathe other islands" = all the other islands, maybe?

:lol2:

Hahahaha! Dear old autocorrect! Um. What was I trying to say.... To be fair,gross though it may seem, there's a lot of Atlantic and not much sewage, whether from Easdale alone, or all the other islands .... ?


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When Mum spoke to me to say she got the photos she commented on the fact that you were away "somewhere even more remote than Arran."
She still thinks you are a safe pair of hands, just a decidedly eccentric one.