The Slate Island of Seil

Clare crosses the famous ‘Bridge over the Atlantic’ for a ramble on the island of Seil. Her guide is the writer, educator, and director of the Scottish Centre for Geopoetics, Norrie Bissell. Geopoetics is described as “creatively expressing the earth” and is critical of the western way of thinking which separates humans from the rest of the natural world. Norrie has also published a novel, ‘Barnhill’, about George Orwell’s final years on the relatively nearby Island of Jura where he wrote 1984.

Approximately twelve miles south of Oban, Seil is a small island separated from the mainland by the narrowest of sea channels. It became known as one of the ‘slate islands’ thanks to its slate rock deposits which were quarried and used to ‘roof the world’. Norrie and Clare begin their walk on the mainland side of the bridge, at Grid Ref NM 785 196.

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Presenter: Clare Balding Producer for BBC Audio in Bristol: Karen Gregor