Easdale Quarry 2

weepete · Aug 28, 2019

The beautiful island of Easdale was once home to the Scottish slate mining industry, which produced it's distinctive stone flecked with iron pyrite. The first mention of the quarries was in the 1500's and the slate can be found in many a Scottish castle. Commercial production didn't kick off until the 1700s and the last commercial slate taken was in 1911. Now flooded, the deep quarries make this a particularly beautiful place. The Island has around 50 residents, no cars, 1 pub and you can walk round it in about 20 minutes. It's one of my favorite discoveries in Scotland though I always find it challenging to shoot there as often the landscape doesn't translate well to 2 dimentions.

Our last day there was stunning, 23 deg C with very little breeze and bright sunshine. The reflections in the quarries was awesome.

Easdale Quarry 2 by wee_pete, on Flickr

zulu42 · Aug 28, 2019

Very, very nicely framed. The panorama aspect makes perfect sense here. I like it.
A sunrise or sunset shot here could be good!

Dean_Gretsch · Aug 28, 2019

Did you get any other views? Like Zulu, I bet sunrise/sunset would be very nice.

K9Kirk · Aug 28, 2019

Nice pic.

Jeff G · Aug 28, 2019

Love that glass smooth water! Beauty of a shot.

weepete · Aug 29, 2019

zulu42 said:
Very, very nicely framed. The panorama aspect makes perfect sense here. I like it.
A sunrise or sunset shot here could be good!

Thanks mate, the framing is a bit sloppier than my normal practise but it was our last day and we had to get out of our cottage by 10am. Such a beautuful day to waste though and the others hadn't been as good so we got the ferry back over and spent the rest of the day there. Easdale can be a tight place to shoot, so it's a hand held 5 or 6 shot panorama covering about 120°. I'm actually stood here between two quarries and it can get flodded at high tide. I should have shot more with my tripod, but time pressures meant I ended up shooting a lot more handheld, and I've had to bin some other shots because of it.

Dean_Gretsch said:
Did you get any other views? Like Zulu, I bet sunrise/sunset would be very nice.

Yes, unfortunatley though the weather didn't play ball and the sunsets had too much cloud cover and ended up fizzling out. I'll be posting a few more of the island in the next few days but it's been hectic since we got back. There's 7 quarries on Easdale, so a lot of oppertunity to shoot.

K9Kirk said:
Nice pic.

Thanks!

Jeff G said:
Love that glass smooth water! Beauty of a shot.

Thanks! the reflections were pretty awesome, and I think the slate quarries make an interesting subject though composition can be challenging. A lot of places there just scream out to be shot wide as you literally don't have the space to back up.

Jeff15 · Aug 29, 2019

Very nice shot................

edsland · Aug 29, 2019

Looks like a great place to relax, very nice

K9Kirk · Aug 29, 2019

Did you get any pics of the old pub that's there? I'd like to see what it looks like.

weepete · Aug 29, 2019

Jeff15 said:
Very nice shot................

thanks!

edsland said:
Looks like a great place to relax, very nice

Yes it is indeed, quiet but friendly and welcoming. It's quite a special place, normally the quarries and stuff would be fenced off with warning signs everywhere but it's not. Kinda harkening back to a time before health and safety gone mad.

K9Kirk said:
Did you get any pics of the old pub that's there? I'd like to see what it looks like.

No pics I'm afraid as it's not much to look at, just an old cottage that's been converted on the inside to a small bar and restaurant/tearoom. A good selection of gins and cracking food (limited menu but fresh West coast seafood and locally sourced meat). They also had 80+/- on draft wich was a treat.

Here's a link to an article as it's up for sale Remote island pub for sale ... just don’t expect a quiet life