The book Arran; - Cook Clan

184 THE BOOK OF ARRAN
proper geological knowledge, which indeed was not then
possible, even climbs Aird Bheinn on an afternoon to hunt
for coal and find stray blocks of limestone. He acts on a
story of coal at Drumadoon and finds only freestone. ^ Good
slate is uncovered in the Loch Ranza district. Between 1773
and 1776 some two to three hundred thousand are sold at
prices from £l per thousand : some of these greyish slates
may still be seen on houses in Loch Ranza and Newton.
The various woods still surviving in a despondent fashion
also receive timely attention, and are among the first things
to be enclosed. There were still woods of a sort at ' Corrie,
were nearly 30 feet of cover. Much lime was formerly exported, but very little is
now worked in the island, and on the Shiskine side lime is imported from Ireland.'
Memoirs of Geol. Survey, vol. xxi. p. 148.
' ' He told me that he heard his mother say that her father told her that coals
were found here and in such plenty that the smith made all his iron work with them ;
but when I went and examined the plans I found nothing but red freestone rock and
other stratas which are the most Barron Simtymes (barren symptoms) of coal
(Sept. 26, 1776). The Coal-Measures in Arran are confined to the north part of
the island on the east side between Fallen Rocks and Cock, a strip a quarter of a mile
broad of Caleiferous Sandstones, Carboniferous Limestone, etc., with seams of ' blind '
coal below Lag-gan. The coal was difficult to work, and had been principally used for
the manufacture of salt from sea-water. The ' salt-pans ' were near by. The
' Cock lime quarry lies east from Saltpans' (Burrel, Sept. 6, 1782). Work at this
coal dates from an early period, and seems to have ceased some time before Burrel
made a fresh start. In 1729 the Duke of Hamilton represents that he has been at
great expense in improving his salt and coal works in the Isle of Arran (Calendar of
Treasury Papers, cxiii. No. 704). There are three seams of coal, the largest of three
or four feet in thickness. Burrel also sank a boring for 114 feet 6 inches on the
Clachland shore, where he never would find coal.
'There are extensive old quarries in the white Carboniferous freestone of Corrie
which was much wrought a century or more ago. It was used in the construction of
the Crinan Canal, and is said to have been shipped to the Isle of Man for building
purposes. At present the red freestone of the Triassic rocks is the principal building
stone in Arran, and there are large quarries in it at Brodick and Corrie. The stone
is soft and easily worked, and is said to harden by exposure to the air. Lai-ge blocks
of it can be obtained, and from Corrie the stone is largely exported to various parts of
the Clyde district, and some going much farther away—a mansion in Rum being built
of it. Troon harbour is said to have been built out of the material from the northern
quarry. In the neighbourhood of Lochranza a tough, gritty schist is used for
building purposes. At Millport the white freestone of the islands in the bay is
quarried for like purposes, and the Upper Old Red Sandstone is largely worked south
of Figgatoch.'
—
Memoirs of Geol. Survey, vol. xxi. p. 148.
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