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 IllustrationsDixon, John H. (John Henry)
History
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
Dixon, John H. (John Henry)
Gairloch (Scotland) -- Guidebooks; Gairloch (Scotland) -- History; Ross and Cromarty (Scotland) -- History
11. On the farm of Point, Gairloch, near the house of Mr MacClymont,
farmer. The heavy bog iron analysed 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 hematite ore, and
clayband ironstone.
Mr J. E. Marr, F.G.S., has described these foreign ores as
follows:--"Red hematite exactly the same as that in the Furness and
Whitehaven districts in England. Large masses of a brown clay ironstone;
one of these masses being a septarian nodule, with radiating crystals
along the cracks; the other being bedded, and containing numerous plant
and fish remains, but no shells; 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 shells, 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."
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