Atlantic Islands Centre

Luiing is one of the ‘slate islands’ in the Firth of Lorn in Argyll, 25 km south of the port of Oban, the others being Easdale, Belnahua and Seil. It is sometimes claimed that these were ‘the islands that roofed the world’, and certainly their slate can be observed on many buildings in Glasgow, including the University. The island extends over 1430 ha, and has a population of about 200.

The Atlantic Islands Centre includes exhibitions on the history of the Argyll islands generally and on Luing in particular, and is the headquarters of the Luing History Group. It is the starting point for trails along which visitors can see prehistoric hill forts, and the ruined church of Kilchattan, first mentioned in historical records of the sixteenth century. They also pass whitewashed cottages at Cullipool and Toberonochy, built for slate quarry workers in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and a jetty from which slate was exported at Black Mill Bay. The centre is the venue for an annual slate festival.