Gairloch in North-West Ross-Shire / Its Records, Traditions, Inhabitants, and Natural History, with a Guide to Gairloch and Loch Maree, and a Map and Illustrations

by John H. Dixon

Chapter XIX.

The Iron Ores used in Gairloch.

The first question that most people ask, when they hear of the ironworks in the parish of Gairloch, is,—Where did the iron that was smelted come from? The answer can only be supplied by an examination of the remains of the ironworks now to be met with, and of their neighbourhood. Of records bearing on the subject there are none. There are but two incidental notices that help to throw light on the question; both are comparatively modern.

The Bennetsfield MS. speaks of "the woods of Letterewe, where there was an iron mine which they wrought by English miners."

The New Statistical Account ([Appendix E]), in the account of Gairloch written by the Rev. Donald MacRae in 1836, says, "Sir James Kay [Sir George Hay] sent several people to work at veins of iron ore on the estate of Letterewe."

Let us discuss the questions of the ores used at the ancient bloomeries and at the historic ironworks under separate heads.

I.—At the Ancient Bloomeries.

It has been already stated ([Part I., chap. xvii.]) that bog iron was the source whence the ancient ironworkers of Gairloch obtained their metal, so that the terms "iron mine" and "veins of iron ore" quoted above must be considered as referring—unwittingly perhaps—to it. The ingredients of ancient Gairloch iron slags, as ascertained by Professor Ivison Macadam, shew that they have unquestionably resulted from the smelting of bog iron. His analyses and conclusions will in due time be made public; they will prove that the iron ore used at the ancient ironworks in the parish of Gairloch was undoubtedly bog iron.

Mention has been made of ferruginous rocks, shales, and earths existing in the vicinity of the old ironworks. Local tradition affirms that these were the sources of the iron used in the old days. It appears certain that bog iron was found in the vicinity of these ferruginous strata,—probably derived from them,—but they cannot have been the subjects of the ancient iron-smelting. Mr Macadam finds that the richest samples of them do not yield more than 8 per cent. of metallic iron, and that the sulphur they contain does not occur in the slags produced at the furnaces, as would have been the case had they been used.

The most abundant and apparent of these rocks is the large band of ferruginous stone that runs from Letterewe, in a south-easterly direction, along the shores of Loch Maree to the further end of the base of Slioch. It is so extensive, and so rusty in colour, that it can be easily discerned from the county road on the opposite side of the loch. Similar ferruginous rock appears in several other places, as far at least as to the head of Glen Dochartie, but not so abundantly, and therefore not so conspicuously. It also occurs in other parts of Gairloch parish. Gairloch people point out several places where they say this ferruginous rock was quarried, viz.: (1) on the south side of the Furnace burn at Letterewe, nearly a quarter of a mile above the site of the iron furnace; (2) on the face of the ridge immediately behind and above the cultivated land at Innis Ghlas; (3) at Coppachy; and (4) in a gully, called Clais na Leac, at the north-west end of the cultivated land at Smiorsair. At each of these places there are exposed scaurs or escarpments of the ferruginous rock, which are said to have been the results of quarrying, but which are much more like natural fractures. We may therefore dismiss the tradition that iron ore was obtained directly from these supposed quarries as not only unreliable but impossible.