The book Arran; - Cook Clan

FOLK HISTORY 125
remains of much charcoal, where it seems to have been made ;
but there is no stream in this case. A second one at Cnoc
Dubh is about 300 feet higher up the hill than the other.
In certain places, as by the burn Lag a' Bheithe, between the
high road and the older track half way from Lamlash to
Brodick, may be seen traces of the turf huts in which the
workers lived, much as they did in the summer shielings.
A bloomery was on the hill between Glen Sherraig and Glen
Cloy,^ there was one at Strathwhillan, and another at Achna-Ceardach
(' field of the smithy '), in the farm of Goirtein
Alasdair, beside road and stream. Probably the tale of coal
at Drumadoon used by the smith indicates another site.^
These examples are pretty well scattered, and no doubt
a careful search would find many more. In those days the
glare of iron furnaces on the hillside must have been a feature
of the countryside, as it now is of certain towns.
A bloomery where copper was smelted is said to exist
at Achariach, Slidderie, at Lean na Meine (' the field of the
mine '). Gold,^ too, is declared to have been extracted by
the same means at Springbank below Brodick, and silver
in Glen Sherraig. In Glen Rosa is Cnoc an airgid (' hillock
of the silver ').
Given a steadily growing population in the island, where
cultivation is also severely limited, there comes a stage when
the young men without prospects must go farther afield.
Naturally, too, for it was the more familiar in its operations,
a seafaring life would have the preference. Trained in the
herring boats and skiffs, the young fellows of Arran found
their way into revenue cutters, excise yachts, the merchant
service, and the navy. In the latter part of the eighteenth
century 300 thus went annually from Kilbride alone to sea-
' 'Two sites were found to the S.S.W. of Glenrickard Cottage, and situated on
separate burns.'
—
Ibid.
' See p. 184, note ].
' But specimens of local 'gold' shown to Headrick turned out to be only iron
pyrites.