The authors present an all-optical technique for loading ion traps that has a number of advantages over conventional thermal atom sources. In our experiment a pulsed Nd:YAG laser at 1064 nm, with pulse energies up to 80 muJ and pulse durations in the region of 30 ns, is incident on a calcium metal surface. This generates a pulsed beam of atomic calcium from the metal surface. The atoms are subsequently photo-ionized in a resonant two-photon process by 272 nm light from a frequency-quadrupled fibre laser.