Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

EASDALE ISLAND, HARBOUR BREASTWORKLB48053

Status: Designated

Documents

There are no additional online documents for this record.

Summary

Category
B
Date Added
02/10/1984
Local Authority
Argyll And Bute
Planning Authority
Argyll And Bute
Parish
Kilbrandon And Kilchattan
NGR
NM 73888 17099
Coordinates
173888, 717099

Description

Circa 1825. Breastwalling to deep and narrow natural harbour inlet, aligned NE-SW with smaller inner harbour to S. Slate slabs laid vertically, regular courses. Slate and whinstone squared rubble steps to SW side of inner harbour. Walling to outer harbour falling into disrepair.

Statement of Special Interest

B Group with Easdale Island numbers: 2,3,4,5; 8,100,6; Drill Hall; 9; 11,11A, 11B; 12; 12A; 13; 15; 32,18,19; 29; 22,23; 24; 31,33A, 33; 34,35; 41,42,43,44; 47; 48; 36; 50,51,52,53,54; Coalery; 55, ordered to follow the original numbering from east to west across Easdale Island, not in actual numeric order. Standard early nineteenth century technique of breastwalling employed, whereby a breastwall was built from the seabed in sufficient depth of water to create a two-foot draught at low tide. The wall was then raised to a height of 12 ft and the gap site between the breastwall and shore filled with rubble and levelled with earth, sand and gravel to create a flat area for harbour quays. Easdale (the term Easdale slate includes the slate islands of Seil and Luing) was the centre of the Scottish slate industry from the sixteenth century through to a peak in the late nineteenth century. The seventeenth century roofs of Ardmaddy, Cawdor and Stalker castles being of Easdale slate, predating the earliest Ballachulish slates. However, systematic industry and settlement on the island dates from1745 when the island's owner John Campbell, Earl of Breadalbane set up the Marble and Slate Company of Netherlorn. Over a million slates were manufactured in that year alone. From this time through to the late nineteenth century it is common to see Easdale slates referred to in building descriptions, inventories and building contracts across Scotland (see the first and second Statistical Accounts). The company was dissolved in 1866 and the various quarries came under new separate ownership. The lease for Easdale being bought by a consortium of Glasgow merchants who formed the Easdale Slate Quarrying Company, their company logo can still sometimes be discerned stencilled on old slates. Commercial production stopped in 1915 with the slate beds running out or too unsafe depths (the Windmill Quarry ran to over 150ft below sea level) and with no rail links Easdale could not compete with cheaper competition from Wales and Westmoreland. However, it was under the Earl of Breadalbane that most of the present workers cottages were built and the all important harbour quays for exporting the slate. The prominent vertical slate slabs set into the breastwall at intervals acted as bookends for stacks of slates waiting to be loaded aboard ships mainly set for Glasgow, Liverpool and Ireland. Breadalbane leased the island shortly after the harbour and it is from this time through to the exhaustion of the quarries in the early twentieth century that slate production reached its peak with tramways and steam pumping engines installed. There was massive depopulation following the closure of the quarries in 1915. The Breadalbane family sold the island in 1930, which then saw further decline until purchased by Mr Donald Dewar in 1950. Dewar hastened the ruination of the island by the removal of many of the slate roofs to avoid paying rates on the buildings. The island was then bought by Mr Peter Fennell in the 1970s when the majority of the buildings were in ruins. Fennell restored and rebuilt many of the houses with the help of local craftsmen. He then sold them as individual feudal tenure plots as people returned to the island in the 1980s. Attempts to bring industry back to Easdale in recent years, in the form of reopening the quarries and a fish farm, have been opposed by local residents.

References

Bibliography

QUARRIES OF SCOTLAND, Historic Scotland, TAN 12. RCAHMS INVENTORY OF ARGYLL, vol II, 1976, No 356. John Hume, THE INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF SCOTLAND, vol II, 1977, p 167. Further information provided by the Easdale Island Folk Museum.

About Listed Buildings

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.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

Images

There are no images available for this record, you may want to check Canmore for images relating to EASDALE ISLAND, HARBOUR BREASTWORK

There are no images available for this record.

Search Canmore

Printed: 29/03/2024 06:50