Gairloch In North-West Ross-Shire Part 11

10. At South Erradale. There is a fence wall, locally called Garadh Iaruinn, or the "iron d.y.k.e," entirely composed (for fifty yards of its length) of ma.s.ses of bog iron, varying from 3 to 13 inches in thickness, and some of them nearly a yard in length. The d.y.k.e was erected in 1845, when the present system of crofts was being established in Gairloch. Quant.i.ties of bog iron are also to be seen in other d.y.k.es, and the soil of probably about two acres of the adjacent cultivated land mainly consists of comminuted bog iron. There must have been large deposits of it at this place; one or two unbroken ma.s.ses still remain _in situ_. Mr Macadam finds that the heavier kind yields, on a.n.a.lysis, 50 per cent. of metallic iron, whilst a sandy portion contains 46 per cent.

11. On the farm of Point, Gairloch, near the house of Mr MacClymont, farmer. The heavy bog iron a.n.a.lysed by Mr Macadam yields 50 per cent. of metallic iron, and some red sand from the same place contains 15 per cent.

II.--AT THE HISTORIC IRONWORKS.

Mr Macadam is of opinion that bog iron was not only used at the ancient bloomeries, but also at some of the historic furnaces in Gairloch parish, particularly at Letterewe and Talladale. He gathers this from the general character and composition of some of the slags found at these places. It was in the early stage of Sir George Hay's career as a manufacturer of iron that he used the native bog iron ore; later on he began to import iron ores of a different kind from other parts of the kingdom,--at first in order to mix them with the local bog iron, and afterwards, perhaps, for separate use. The introduction of these imported ores may have been primarily due to the failure of the supply of the bog iron; it undoubtedly led to a vast improvement in the results obtained at Sir George Hay's furnaces.

The evidence that Sir George imported what we may term foreign ores is not far to seek.

At the Letterewe ironworks there are to be seen fragments of two kinds of imported iron ore, scattered in the soil of the field adjoining the furnace, or built into fence walls; they are red hemat.i.te ore, and clayband ironstone.

Mr J. E. Marr, F.G.S., has described these foreign ores as follows:--"Red hemat.i.te exactly the same as that in the Furness and Whitehaven districts in England. Large ma.s.ses of a brown clay ironstone; one of these ma.s.ses being a septarian nodule, with radiating crystals along the cracks; the other being bedded, and containing numerous plant and fish remains, but no sh.e.l.ls; these fossils shew them to belong to the carboniferous system."

Some small fragments of similar clay ironstone have been found on the traditional site of the Talladale iron furnace.

On the bank above the ironworks on the river Ewe, called the Red Smiddy, are fragments of clayband ironstone, which Mr Marr has described as follows:--"Clay ironstone nodules, mostly blue inside, and weathering red and yellow on the outside. Many of these were septarian; and when fossils occurred they were of sh.e.l.ls, and there were no traces of plants or of fish remains. This ore, in fact, is entirely different from either of the two kinds found at the Letterewe furnace. At the same time, the fossils shew that it also belongs to the carboniferous system."

On the west bank of the pool at Poolewe, the landing-place both for Letterewe and the Red Smiddy, is a considerable heap of red hemat.i.te exactly similar to that found at Furnace, Letterewe. At the same place are many ma.s.ses of clay ironstone, which include all the varieties found at Letterewe and the Red Smiddy. In the soil in the bank below Poolewe church, where a jetty and storehouse were erected in 1885, there are also large quant.i.ties of clayband ironstone, which were not seen by Mr Marr.

Mr Macadam has examined and a.n.a.lysed samples of all these foreign ores.

He is unable to draw the same distinction as Mr Marr between the apparent varieties of clayband ironstone, and thinks that they were in all probability from the same place, and that most likely the south of Scotland. He finds that the samples of hemat.i.te ore contain metallic iron varying in quant.i.ty from 30 to 60 per cent. The samples of clayband ironstone he finds to yield from 6 to 38 per cent. of metallic iron; they also contain a considerable quant.i.ty of lime.

Mr Marr thinks that these foreign or imported ores were mixed with local ore. The lime in the clayband ironstone would render it a useful ingredient from its quality of acting as a flux. Mr Marr adds, "The theory of intermixture of local and imported ores receives support from a similar case in Wales which has come under my observation, where somewhat impure ore containing quant.i.ties of phosphorus, occurring among the old slaty rocks of North Wales, is carried to South Wales to mix with the carboniferous ores."

For convenience of reference in our next chapter, the several sources from whence iron was obtained for the smelting-furnaces on Loch Maree, and in other parts of Gairloch, may be cla.s.sed as follows:--

1. Bog iron obtained locally.

2. Red hemat.i.te. Same as found in Lancas.h.i.+re and c.u.mberland, and unquestionably imported thence.

3. Clayband ironstone, possibly in two varieties. This was also imported either from the south of Scotland or elsewhere.

Chapter XX.

REMAINS OF IRONWORKS IN THE PARISH OF GAIRLOCH.

The following descriptions will include all the remains of ironworks so far noticed within the parish of Gairloch, whether belonging to what we have called the ancient cla.s.s, or to the more modern historic set.

The slags found in and about the various remains are broadly divided by Mr Macadam into two cla.s.ses, which he describes as follows:--

(1.) A dark black slag, compact and heavy, in some cases slightly porous; the percentage of iron in this slag is high; in many samples more than half is iron.

(2.) A gray light porous ma.s.s, resembling the slags formed in blast furnaces at the present day; this slag contains a large proportion of lime, and a comparatively small proportion of iron.

The descriptions of iron ores found at the different places are indicated by numbers referring to the list of ores at the end of the last chapter.

It appears certain that there were ironworks in the following different places in Gairloch parish,--

1. Glen Dochartie; three places.

2. Fasagh.

3. Furnace, Letterewe.

4. Talladale.

5. Garavaig, on Slatadale farm.

6. Red Smiddy, near Poolewe.

1. GLEN DOCHARTIE.

The traveller proceeding from Loch Maree to Achnasheen may notice, to the right of the road, about four hundred yards before the head of Glen Dochartie is gained, and on the seven hundred feet contour line of the ordnance survey, a scattered heap of small pieces of the slag No. 1. The burn runs past not many yards below. No site of a furnace can be identified. On the other side of the road, about three hundred yards up the hill, on the thousand feet contour, are more extensive similar remains, with the same kind of slag. Mr Macadam finds that this slag contains 66 per cent. of metallic iron, and no lime as silicate. There is red earth in the neighbourhood resembling what is found with "pans"

of bog iron. The burn runs past, but is now in a deep gully. At the foot of the glen, more than a mile nearer Kenlochewe, and a little to the west of the bridge over the burn, are fragments of similar slag, and traces of charcoal burnings. The place is on the ancient beach, about twenty feet above the level of the road. No doubt all these remains are of considerable antiquity; they may perhaps have been parts of the same undertaking.

2. FASAGH.

The most extensive remains of ironworks on Loch Maree are on the south side of the Fasagh burn, close to where it runs into the loch. This burn comes from Loch Fada, a considerable sheet of water to the north of Slioch. There are remains of a sluice or dam where the burn leaves Loch Fada, evidently used long ago to regulate the water supply. The burn flows into Loch Maree at its south-east corner, close to the head of the loch. There are indications of a large artificial bank, probably the remains of a dam, formed at right angles to the burn, near the site of the ironworks; but the burn has of late years been subject to great floods, that have to some extent varied its course, and altered the surrounding features.

There are two places which seem to have been the sites of furnaces or bloomeries; at each of these spots, which are near each other, and have a small watercourse (now dry) running alongside, there is a ma.s.s of slaggy material surrounding a root or stump of a tree. In the same part is a quant.i.ty of blackish material, weathering red and splitting on exposure like quicklime, and on all sides are heaps and scattered ma.s.ses of dark heavy slag No. 1. The tuyere (_see ill.u.s.tration_) of a furnace was in 1882 removed from a cottage close by, where it had been for a long time; it is now in the possession of Mr Macadam, and is to be placed in the Museum of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. I have obtained from an old man at Kenlochewe, an ancestor of whose brought it from the Fasagh ironworks, a curious article (_see ill.u.s.tration_); it is of cast-iron, and seems to have formed part of the apparatus for working a large forge-hammer. In examining the furnaces with Mr Macadam in April 1886, we found a portion of a thin bar, which appeared to be of iron.

They say that a ma.s.sive hammer head brought from Fasagh was long at Culinellan, and that an anvil at the Kenlochewe smithy was formed from part of it. Not far from the sites of the furnaces is a mound of rust-coloured earth like that found with bog iron (ore No. 1). There are evidences of extensive charcoal burnings on the other side of the burn, to the west of the ironworks.

Mr Macadam has supplied the following results of his a.n.a.lyses of samples of substances obtained at Fasagh:--The slaggy material from tree roots contains 66 per cent., the blackish material 73 per cent., and the dark slag 68 per cent. of metallic iron; the slag also contains 11 per cent.

of silica; the bar of iron contains 63 per cent. of metallic iron, and a large quant.i.ty of carbon.

About half a mile to the east of the Fasagh works, at the foot of the crag called Bonaid Donn, is a small circular pond, or rather a large hole in the middle of a circular marsh. It is called Lochan Cul na Cathrach. There is a perpetual flow of spring water from this hole, and the surrounding marsh prevents close approach to it. It is the common tradition, accepted with the fullest credence, that into this hole the last ironworkers at Fasagh threw all their implements when the furnaces were discontinued. Possibly a drag might bring something to light, or the hole might be drained. The tradition is so firmly believed, that it produces on one's mind a strong impulse to search the hole, and try to find something bearing on the nature and history of the Fasagh ironworks.

From the character of the slags, the comparatively complete state of the remains, and from the tuyere and other things having been discovered, it seems probable that the Fasagh works, whilst belonging to the ancient cla.s.s of ironworks, were amongst the most recent of that cla.s.s; and Mr Macadam thinks it possible that Sir George Hay may have commenced his operations at this place in continuation, no doubt, of older ironworks.

3. FURNACE, LETTEREWE.

The remains of the ironworks at the hamlet of Furnace, a mile south-east of Letterewe, are perhaps the most generally interesting in Gairloch, as being especially identified with Sir George Hay. The furnace which gives its name to the hamlet is on the north-west bank of the "Furnace burn,"

about one hundred yards from its confluence with Loch Maree. The remains of the furnace are tolerably complete, and a hole in its lower part looks as if it had been the aperture for the blast. On the banks of the burn are ma.s.ses of sandstone, which formed part of the furnace. Some fragments of vitrified bricks are also to be seen. In the soil of the adjoining field, and in its fence walls, are quant.i.ties of the ores 2 and 3. In places the soil is quite red with fragments of hemat.i.te. In other places it is stained black with charcoal burnings, and many fragments of charcoal are to be found. No doubt the water-power of the burn was utilised, and Loch Maree afforded an easy means of transport of imported ores from Poolewe, where they were landed.

The slags found about this furnace are of both cla.s.ses. May we not conclude from this fact, that Sir George Hay commenced the manufacture of iron on the old methods anciently in vogue, and that it was at Letterewe that he began the improved processes which were afterwards carried to still greater perfection at the Red Smiddy? This furnace belongs of course to the historic cla.s.s.

4. TALLADALE.

A strong local tradition places the Talladale furnace on the bank of a small burn about one hundred and fifty yards south-east of the Talladale river; it stood in the corner of the field nearest to, and to the west of, the road. They say that when this field was reclaimed and trenched, large quant.i.ties of slag were turned up, and were buried in the land and in drains. The few specimens of slag found on the surface in 1883 are of both kinds. Some small fragments of ore discovered are No. 3. It seems pretty certain, therefore, that the Talladale furnace was carried on by Sir George Hay, and that it belongs to the historic cla.s.s of ironworks.

5. GARAVAIG, ON SLATADALE FARM.

The Garavaig furnace stood in a slight hollow in the east corner of what is now the easternmost field of the Slatadale farm, close to where the Garavaig burn (on which are the Victoria Falls) runs into Loch Maree.