CAUSES OF DESTRUCTION 321 



1609, "Anent the making of Yrne with Wode," in which it 

 is stated that 



being informit that some personis vpoun advantage of the present generall 

 obedience in those partis (the heylandis) wald erect yrne milnis in the same 



pairtis, to the vtter waisting and consumeing of the saidis wodes Thair- 



fore...commandis, chairgeis, and inhibitis all and sindrie his maiesties 

 leigis and subjectis that nane of thame presome nor tak vpoun hand to 

 woork and mak ony irne with wod or tymmer under the pane of confiscatioun 

 of the haill yrne... 



The Scots Act notwithstanding, the smelting of "yrne 

 with wode " and the " waisting and consumeing of the 

 wodes " went gaily on. Even in the eighteenth century, 

 when, after the rebellion of 1715, the military occupation of 

 the Highlands had shown a way to fresh forests, many new 

 slag-furnaces were erected, to which ore was brought from 

 England. 



"Thus," wrote Professor Macadam in 1887, "the following furnaces 

 sprang into existence: Bunawe or Taynuilt in 1730: Invergarry in the 

 same year; Abernethy in Strathspey also in 1730: Furnace in 1750 ; Goat- 

 field, Loch Fyne, in 1754; and Carron in 1760. These large works soon 

 consumed the wood, and Invergarry and Abernethy soon ceased to be 

 worked. Carron, having changed its fuel to coal, still exists; Goatfield and 

 Bunawe are only a few years blown out; and there is not now a single 

 ironwork in Scotland using charcoal as fuel, and only two remain in 

 England." 



Incidentally the distribution of these iron furnaces indicates 

 roughly where the greatest extent of easily accessible forest 

 still existed about the middle of the eighteenth century. 



The destruction wrought by these later and larger 

 furnaces was irreparable. In 1728, 60,000 trees were pur- 

 chased for ,7000 from the Strathspey forest of Sir James 

 Grant. The trees were intended as masts to be used for 

 the navy an index to the effect on woodland of our "wooden 

 walls " but, proving too small, they were used for charring 

 at the iron furnace at Abernethy. About 1786, the Duke 

 of Gordon sold his Glenmore Forest to an English company 

 for ,10,000; and the Rothiemurchus forest for many-years 

 yielded large returns to its proprietor, the profit being some- 

 times above ,20,000 in one year. That all the timber of 

 these fine forests was used for charring, I do not imagine, 

 but destruction on no small scale is certainly indicated by 

 the accounts. As forests in the near neighbourhood of the 

 bloomeries became exhausted, destruction spread in wider 



R. 21 



