Documents

Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).

The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.

• Type

  Legal Documents

  Title

  SM10355_Legal Doc

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600013631)

Summary

Description

The monument comprises the remains of the slate quarries, working bays and associated industrial buildings and other infrastructure, including the engine house, boiler house, forge, powder houses and tramways, in the western part of Easdale island, and the two quarries in the SE of the island. The surviving elements of the slate quarrying include seven, substantial and separate quarries, five of them flooded; widespread loose material and spoil-heaps (the by-product of slate extraction and processing); and the remains of buildings, machinery and infrastructure used to excavate, process and transport the slate. The quarries are up to 100m across and over 60m deep; in some cases, they are reported to be 90m deep. The monument occupies a substantial part of Easdale island. The earliest two quarries are located in the SE of the island, while the remainder dominate the NE, N and W sides of the island.

Easdale, Seil, Luing and Belnahua are the principal 'slate islands' of Argyll. Easdale slate, a black carbonaceous pyritic slate, had been collected from the shores of Easdale and quarried from the surface on an ad hoc basis for centuries before the quarries were developed commercially during the first half of the 18th century. Glasgow Cathedral, for example, founded in 1197, is said to be roofed with Easdale slate; some 15th-century graveslabs in Argyll are made of Easdale slate; and in 1697 Ardmaddy Castle was re-roofed with Easdale slate. When the management of the quarries on the slate islands was taken over by the Marble and Slate Company of Netherlorn in 1745, eight crews of four men were employed on Easdale, with an annual production of about one million slates per year, mostly for roofing. By 1771 the workforce had increased to 13 crews. The introduction of the slate tax in 1799 on slate transported by sea caused the profits of the company to drop.

Most of the beds of good slate at Easdale lay near or below ground-level and, when pumps were introduced in the 19th century, the workings were carried down to considerable depths and production increased. The engine house provided the motive power for the railway system and for the pumps in the quarry. A decrease in the price of slate during the 1840s saw the company's profits fall significantly, and in 1862 the individual quarries were sold to different owners. Natural disasters also threatened the continued production of the quarries. A storm in November 1881 caused severe damage on Easdale, flooding the quarries and destroying buildings. From 1896 to 1906 the Easdale Slate Company employed approximately 100 men, but production ceased when the company went bankrupt in 1911, although two men continued to produce slates on the island between the two world wars. The quarries are now exhausted. Today, Easdale Island Museum houses a collection of artefacts, documents and photographs relating to the slate-quarrying industry.

The scheduled area comprises three irregular-shaped areas to include the remains described above and an area around them within which evidence relating to the monument's construction, use and abandonment is expected to survive, as shown in red on the accompanying map. Specifically excluded from the scheduling are the above-ground elements of all modern boundary features, hand-rails, signage and all other modern additions, and the top 30cm of all modern paths, to allow for their maintenance and repair. The scheduling also excludes the look-out point atop the highest point of the island. In the case of the two quarries at the SE side of the island, the scheduled areas generally extend 5m beyond the near-vertical faces of the two quarries, but they specifically exclude the gardens of the adjacent cottages to the W, all modern fences and other structures, and all services and other modern intrusions beyond the faces of the quarries.

Statement of National Importance

References

Bibliography

About Scheduled Monuments

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).

The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.

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