SCOTTISH FORESTS IN EARLY TIMES. 105 



be seen in a theory enunciated by Mr. W. Copeland Borlase in his 

 elaborate work on the Dolmens of Ireland (1897) which, although 

 having direct reference to the sister Kingdom and applying mostly 

 to pre-historic man, seems to me worth mentioning here. Mr. 

 Borlase contends that these ancient stone monuments, often huge 

 in size and set up on high ground, were for the most part put in 

 place by the aid of trunks of great trees, felled in the native woods, 

 and used both as rollers to carry the stones and as levers to 

 propel and raise them, large gangs of people being employed in 

 the work. 



Native iron was worked and manufactured in this country from 

 very early times ; there seems reason to believe that Julius Caesar 

 found forges at work in the Weald of Sussex and Kent when he 

 invaded South Britain (b.c. 55). To smelt iron, fuel is required, 

 and up to so late a date as 1760, when the Carron Company com- 

 menced using coke, wood or its product, charcoal, was the only fuel 

 used. Of these later furnaces in relation to our woodlands the story 

 is clear and simple • but in the meantime I wish to briefly indicate 

 the extent and distribution of the earliest forges and furnaces in 

 Scotland, keeping in mind the fact that, contemporaneously with 

 them, must have been present the means of obtaining fuel— wood 

 and timber or perhaps peat. Traces of these " bloomeries " are 

 to be found in the following counties,— Aberdeen, Argyll, Ayr, 

 Banff, Berwick, Bute, Dumbarton, Dumfries, Elgin, Inverness, 

 Nairn, Perth, Stirling, Ross and Sutherland. I further specify some 

 localities not far from our own city,— Tarbert and Rowardennan 

 (Loch Lomond), Duchray Moor, Benmore (Cowal), Skipness, 

 Strachur, Strachlachan (several, in the largest of which, at Esmore, 

 the following varieties of wood have been identified amongst the 

 refuse— birch, oak, holly, ash, elm and beech), Stonefield House, 

 Loch Goil, Glendaruel (several), and in Arran at Glen Kill (three 

 places), Gortonalister (Lamlash), Largiebeg, Cnoc Dubh (two), 

 Shiskin, Glencloy and Loch Ranza. 1 I have already sounded a 

 warning note chronologically when I mentioned the date 1760, 

 and it seems certain that many of these works are of more recent 

 date than what I call " early times," as indeed their comparatively 

 fresh state shows; but that they (or such-like) have been in operation 



1 W. Irison Macadam's Notes on the Ancient Iron Industry of Scotland. 



