Hello
The Wester Ross bloomeries used local bog ores but it seems that Sir George
Hay's blast furnace at Poolewe worked on iron ore transported from Dysart
and St Monans in Fife. When John Lewis excavated the site in the 1970s he
found several pieces of clayband ironstone but no hematite.
Fife to Loch Maree is a long, long way but seaborne iron ore could be
brought directly to the jetty at Poolewe and the whole area (granted to Hay
in the early 1600s) was rich in timber - so presumably it all made economic
sense.
John
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