Saturday, May 9, 2009

Loving Elora

It is such a pleasure to visit the town of Elora that is steeped in heritage. Its geography is responsible for its early development in the mid 19th century.

The Grand River and Irvine River have carved deep gorges predominately during glacial times and these rivers join at Elora.
The Gorge ...... Grand River at Elora

It proved an ideal spot for utilising the fall of water to operate a a Flour Mill and a Timber Mill.

The early Scottish settlers left their legacy of beautifully styled buildings about the town. It is pleasing to see that more modern buildings have been built to reflect the original aesthetics of the town.
Log Cabin styled buildings might be relatively expensive to construct but they certainly do have a special charm and are wonderfully insular against the elements. Log cabin buildings are built off site then reconstructed on site and finished off.
Mill Street runs parallel to the river and contains lots of shops of various artisans. There are steps and a parapet that lead you to shops on a lower level of the main building closer to the river level.


The majestic Elora Mill (flour) is still standing and now is a popular Inn and Restaurant.


You can see that there is a pipeline running around the outer wall of the old mill and this is used for generating electricity by taking in water near the other end of the Mill and supplying it to the turbine at a level near the bottom of the waterfall.
One shop of particular interest was Steve's Sheepskin and Leather Products on Mill St. The range of items and the quality of workmanship was astounding.

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