Gerry McDonnell

Archaeometallurgy

 

Four furnaces dating to this period have been excavated.    The furnaces are estimated to have been  3m high from tap channel to furnace top, and water-powered.  The furnaces produced cast iron.

 

The landscape model proposed is that a furnace operated intensely for a few months in a year  The following year the smelters built a new furnace at another location.  Thus the furnace site migrated around the valley returning to the first site perhaps some 10-15 years later by which time the local woodland would have regenerated  to produce the charcoal for the smelt.

 

Stingamires Furnace.  Photo: Author)