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NATURAL OF SELF-SOWN FIR WOOD The whole Forest of Guisach, situated on the south side of Loch Arkaig, on the estate of Lochiel, and in the country of Inverness. The trees are large, and the wood particularly adapted for house building. There are very excellent saw mills in the neighbourhood of the forest, which have a constant supply of water; and as the wood can easily be conveyed by land or water to the western entrance of the Caledonian Canal, it is an object worthy of the attention of all wood merchants and builders. Further particulars may be know by applying to Alexander Fraser, Esq., Lincoln's Inn, London; Hugh Warrander, Esq. or Duncan Cameron, W.S. Edinburgh; or to Mr. Hood, by Fort William; to either of whom written offers may be made. __________ TO BE LET That Slate Quarry, situated on the north side of Ballechulish Ferry, and on the estate of Lochiel, and country of Inverness. The Slates are of a very superior quality, and the quarry situated with 100 yards of the sea at low water. Every manner of encouragement will be given by the proprietor for the accommodation of the tenant and his workmen. Further particulars may be know by applying to Alexander Fraser, Esq., Lincoln's Inn, London; Hugh Warrander, Esq. or Duncan Cameron, W.S. Edinburgh; or to Mr. Hood, by Fort William; to either of whom written offers may be made. |
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Editor's Notes: Guisach,
also known as The Pine Forest or The Place of the Firs, is a remnant of the
Caledonian Forest. Such sales were not uncommon; Macdonald of
Clanranald placed significant timber resources in Moidart and Arisaig up for
sale in 1794. Eight years prior to this 1808 news story the same stand
of fir timber seems to have advertised for sale (Edinburgh Advertiser, March
18/21, 1800) with a similar description, but adding that it contained
"several thousand tons of marketable timber." Furthermore,
it stated that the wood proposed to be cut would be floated to and milled by
Donald Cameron, saw miller at "Auchancarry" (Achnacarry), which
goes to support the supposition that this was the same stand of timber cited
in 1808. Based on the eight year period during which the timber was
advertised, and the fact that Lord
Malmesbury commented, in 1844, that: "the heather is so strong that a
walking-stick can be cut out of it, and the jungle so impenetrable that I have
known a dead stag lost there as one might a partridge in a turnip-field...The pines in this
primeval forest are some of them twenty feet
round, and stand like white skeletons that have died in their old age."
it is is probable that the sale never took place. Guisach remains beautifully wooded to this date, albeit surely diminished from
its pre-nineteenth century grandeur.
The Ballachulish quarries were widely mined from 1693/94 until their closure in 1955. They may still be seen at the eastern end of Ballachulish, but nature is gradually reclaiming the land. |
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