Documents

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The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.

• Type

  Legal Documents

  Title

  SM4357_Legal Doc

  Download(https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/document/600010274)

Summary

Description

The monument comprises ironworks. Though far from clear, it would appear reasonable to suppose that the ironworks was built before Sir George Hay of Kinfauns, Earl of Kinnoul, passed this way around 1597. It is most probably not a blast furnace making cast iron, but a bloomery making wrought iron, complete with ancillary working areas including finery and chafery (ie. A forge). It may have been built in the last quarter of the 16th century and abandoned in the middle of the next.

The ironworks lies under grass cover. The bloomery mound would appear to be at the NW side of the forge, whose hammer-hearths are just discernible. Both bloomery and hearths may have been harnessed to the various items of plant. There are numerous slag-heaps around the ironworks, but no obvious signs of storage sheds. Fasagh ironworks could potentially be one of the most interesting and significant industrial sites in Scotland. As it appears today it is quite inscrutable and defies understanding.

Statement of National Importance

The site is of national importance as it may well be the only substantial advanced bloomery left in Scotland, and its proximity to the first blast furnace in Scotland, at Poolewe at the other end of Loch Maree, makes it that much more important, for there may indeed be a close link between the two. It may be that here, at both Fasagh and Red Smiddy, Poolewe, we have the crucial change in technology from bloomery to blast furnace surviving substantially intact. The monument is of particular importance as a field monument and for the information in it relating to the peak of bloomery technique. It is of first-rate importance for studies of the iron industries in Scotland.

References

Bibliography

About Scheduled Monuments

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.

We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).

The format of scheduled monument records has changed over time. Earlier records will usually be brief. Some information will not have been recorded and the map will not be to current standards. Even if what is described and what is mapped has changed, the monument is still scheduled.

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