This chain of smaller isles stretches all along the Firth of Lorn into the outer reaches of Loch Linnhe. For hundreds of years the Slate Islands were the scene of heavy toil as their quarries were worked to produce over eight million slates a year, roofing much of Scotland. Today all is changed, the quarries long closed, the landscape quiet and peaceful, with many of the former workers’ cottages serving as picturesque holiday homes. Further north, Kerrera provides an easily reached taste of alternative tourism for visitors to Oban, while Lismore is an unspoilt idyll which well deserves its Gaelic name, meaning ‘the Big Garden’.