Bonawe (; ) is a village in Ardchattan Parish

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute ( sco, Argyll an Buit; gd, Earra-Ghàidheal agus Bòd, ) is one of 32 unitary authority council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod (14 July 2020) ...

, Scotland opposite

Taynuilt Taynuilt (; , meaning 'the house by the stream') is a large village in Argyll and Bute, Scotland located at the western entrance to the narrow Pass of Brander. Location The village is situated on the River Nant about a kilometre before the rive ...

on the north shore of

Loch Etive Loch Etive (Scottish Gaelic, ''Loch Eite'') is a 30 km sea loch in Argyll and Bute, Scotland. It reaches the sea at Connel, 5 km north of Oban. It measures 31.6 km (19 miles) long and from 1.2 km ( mile) to wide. Its ...

, most famous for the shipping firm J & A Gardener's Bonawe Quarry - now owned by Breedon Aggregates Scotland Ltd (). Bonawe is primarily a

linear settlement A linear settlement is a (normally small to medium-sized) settlement or group of buildings that is formed in a long line. Many of these settlements are formed along a transport route, such as a road, river, or canal. Others form due to physical re ...

along on the

B845 road B roads are numbered routes in Great Britain of lesser importance than A roads. See the article Great Britain road numbering scheme for the rationale behind the numbers allocated. Zone 8 (3 digits) Zone 8 (4 digits) See also * A roads ...

and the coast. The iron furnace is at Bonawe in Glenorchy & Inishail Parish across Loch Etive nr Taynuilt in Muckairn Parish.

Bonawe Quarry

In the early 1900s there were 1,000 people living in Bonawe. The hub of this community was the Bonawe Quarry which still operates to this day. In those days there were stonemasons, drillers and miners extracting the stone and of course their families and support industries such as local shops, butchers, bowling greens, a cinema, bakeries and laundry. But now technology has advanced which means very few people are needed from the quarry and people can come from far to work, and as a result there are no shops left in Bonawe.

Ardchattan Primary School

When the school opened in 1886, on the shores of Loch Etive, it had a roll of 14. The number rose to 50 within five years and in 1940 it hit 100 - including 40 Second World War evacuees. It is now mothballed due to no children. It ran for 128 years until 2014.

Kenmore Cottages

Kenmore Cottages is a small village just 2 minutes away from the school and a 20-minute walk from the quarry. There is 27 houses in the horseshoe-shaped village. Other than that, there are some houses near the quarry and on the road to Oban, but many are ruins.

Bonawe Ferry

There was a ferry crossing at Bonawe, from Eilean Duirinnis known as the "Penny Ferry".

Etymology

The name is derived from

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well ...

''Bun Abha'', meaning "the mouth of the River Awe".

Lorn Furnace

Lorn Furnace or Bonawe Furnace is located across the loch, in Glenorchy and Innishail Parish, between the rivers Awe and Nant, close to Taynuilt Village in Muckairn Parish from which the Nant separates it. It was built in 1753 by Richard Ford & Co. (the Newland Company) from

Furness Furness ( ) is a peninsula and region of Cumbria in northwestern England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, historically an exclave of Lancashire. The Furness Peninsula, also known as Low Furness, is an area of vill ...

(now in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in North West England, bordering Scotland. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local government, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. C ...

) to use Furness haematite ore with local charcoal. The same company operated the furnace until 1876. The site is in the guardianship of

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland ( gd, Alba Aosmhor) was an executive agency of the Scottish Office and later the Scottish Government from 1991 to 2015, responsible for safeguarding Scotland's built heritage, and promoting its understanding and enjoyment ...

.Historic Iron Furnace
Historic Scotland.

References

Villages in Argyll and Bute {{Argyll-geo-stub