After the death of the Earl of Kinnoull, his ironworks appear to have fallen into a languishing condition, possibly from the timber being exhausted. In Knox's Tour it is stated that Mr Alexander Mackenzie of Lochend, in 1786, told the author (Mr Knox) that cannon were still made at Poolewe in 1668. Mr Mackenzie said his grandfather had "lent ten thousand marks to the person or persons who carried on the works, for which he got in return the back of an old grate and some hammers." It is curious that these relics are the only remains known to have existed (except the breech of a cannon and some small pigs of iron) of the productions of the Loch Maree ironworks. The "back of an old grate" was no doubt the same as that which Mr Dounie told Pennant of, and the hammers, or at least one of them, must have been the same as existed in living memory. (See Part I., chap. xx.) So far as we can judge, the ironworks were discontinued soon after the date of the loan mentioned by Mr Mackenzie of Lochend. Thus the undertaking was carried on for a period of at least sixty years. Local tradition affirms that the industry was prolonged into the eighteenth century, but there is nothing to confirm the tradition except the story of the Gille Buidhe (Part I., chap. xiv.); it speaks of men living in 1746 as being sons of one of the last of the Letterewe ironworkers. The artisans employed by Sir George Hay are said by some to have been from Fife, by others to have been Welsh, and by all to have been "English." But this last term only means that the ironworkers spoke English, for as truly remarked by the Rev. Donald MacRae, minister of Poolewe (Appendix E), "Highlanders look upon all who do not speak the Gaelic language as Sasganaich [_Sasunnach_] or Englishmen." The names Cross, Bethune or Beaton, and Kemp, are still known in Gairloch parish as belonging to descendants of the ironworkers. Cross is a common Lancashire name. Mr D. William Kemp, of Trinity, who has read a valuable paper on old ironworks in Sutherlandshire to the Scottish Society of Arts, says that the name Kemp is very uncommon in Wales, but is a north of England name, and was common in Cumberland after the fourteenth century, artisans of that surname having settled in that county in the reign of Edward III. It is probable that Sir George Hay's artisans were mostly from Fife; they were very likely some of the men who had been taken by the "Fife Adventurers" to the Lews, with the object (frustrated as we have seen) of establishing a colony there. To these Fifeshire men were no doubt added a few (including a Cross and a Kemp) who had come with iron ore from Lancashire or Cumberland. Of course all of them were ignorant of Gaelic.