Arisaig Canal - Mains of Arisaig Sawmill

[Richard Carter]

This odd little canal on the west coast of Scotland came up on the forum earlier this year - as I am currently holidaying within sight, I've been for a closer look.

 

A local walking guide has this information:

 

 

Oddly enough the map which shows the most engineering features is not the historic OS 6" but the latest 1:25000:

 

 

From west to east:

 

1. At the high water mark there are remains of concrete abutments

2. Bridge carrying the road to Rhu

3. Not on the map, immediately east of the bridge, the "old sluice gate" has a recess on the north side for a single gate, with vestigial remains of a wooden heel post(??), and on the south side, a rather small rebate it would have closed against; this side also has what looks more like a stop plank groove, but rather narrow and running deep into the side wall. 27 paces further upstream the same is more-or-less repeated, making the construction resemble a pound lock. The "chamber" is, like the rest of the channel, part masonry and part cut into the rock.

4. Only the concrete abutments remain of the footbridge marked, some supporting wooden beams were still in place in 2017. More info and lots of photos here:

https://canmore.org.uk/site/277550/mains-of-arisaig

5. A little further "upstream" and now quite close to the sawmill (the curving cart track leads to it), is a widening on the north side which looks like some sort of loading facility. This is also not explicitly marked on the OS map.

 

I've not found anything online which suggests boats of any sort were used, although the descriptions are vague and perhaps don't absolutely rule it out. One 19th C. document

https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/ordnance-survey-name-books/inverness-shire-os-name-books-1876-1878/inverness-shire-mainland-volume-12/57)

elegantly writes of "conveying" the timber "to the sea". The presumed loading bay could be interpreted as a cart track leading down to a platform which was dry with the canal "empty", where the sawn timbers could be stacked, and flooded when full (sluice/lock gates closed) to float them off. Then I suppose they'd have had to be towed round to the jetty for loading onto seagoing boats. But surely boats would have been better?

 

The photos on the canmore site linked above do show a lot of detail, I'll post separately a few more which don't duplicate.

The extension of the canal below the high tide mark and the remains of the concrete abutment:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lower gate recess and timber heelpost remains:

 

Upper gate recess - but here the heel post end looks more like a stop plank groove:

 

 

[magpie patrick]

Fascinating! Sadly our itinerary for the great Glen holiday doesn't have any spare time to get to Arisaig.

 

Floating timber is still navigation I would argue - there were canals built in Norway for use by log rafts 

[Pluto]

Numerous canals have been built in Europe for timber rafting, such as all those in Finland. There was also what is known in Germany as 'Trift', which was basically firewood, and canals for rafting or moving Trift were built all over Germany, Czech, Austria and France. Rafting timber, this time for building, was also done regularly on European rivers, and on the L&LC out of Liverpool in the late 18th century, but was stopped on the canal because of damage to locks and other canal infrastructure. 

[Chris Lowe]

Here's the Canmore entry for it, https://canmore.org.uk/site/277550/mains-of-arisaig

[Richard Carter]

Home again, and to add a footnote:  I ran this thread past my archaeologist brother (Edinburgh-based), and he made some very interesting observations and highlighted a few things he would want to follow up if hired to investigate the site:

1. (obvious enough in hindsight) the concrete structures are very unlikely to date from 1856, so whatever it was at the high tide mark may have replaced the sluice/pound lock further up the canal in a later phase of operation.

2. He felt the whole idea of having a steam-powered sawmill in a location as isolated as Arisaig in the 19th C. was faintly preposterous, i.e. possibly a vanity project? Generally water power or horse gins predominated, and coal, if that were the fuel, would have had to be brought in by boat. Bro also wondered where the timber was coming from, there not being any meaningful forests nearby. Seemingly the quite fancy dressed stone for the engineering works is also not local and would have had to be shipped in.

3. On the argument that there must have been plans drawn up - which may survive, buried in Estate archives - it would make a good local history project.

 

These remarks were more-or-less of the top of the head, but they put the whole thing in a different light for me ...

[alias]

55 minutes ago, Richard Carter said:

He felt the whole idea of having a steam-powered sawmill in a location as isolated as Arisaig in the 19th C. was faintly preposterous, i.e. possibly a vanity project? Generally water power or horse gins predominated, and coal, if that were the fuel, would have had to be brought in by boat.

This site mentions a stream watermill rather than a steam watermill which suggests a water power source.  Of course it could just be a transcription error.

https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/ordnance-survey-name-books/inverness-shire-os-name-books-1876-1878/inverness-shire-mainland-volume-12/57

[Richard Carter]

55 minutes ago, alias said:

This site mentions a stream watermill rather than a steam watermill which suggests a water power source.  Of course it could just be a transcription error.

https://scotlandsplaces.gov.uk/digital-volumes/ordnance-survey-name-books/inverness-shire-os-name-books-1876-1878/inverness-shire-mainland-volume-12/57

 

Yes, we had spotted that - and went with the transcription error interpretation, the handwriting looks like steam to me, and the Canmore photos I linked in my first post show the chimney ... but I'd agree it is a point worth keeping an open mind on.