Forest Heritage Scotland webpage - Raasay Mines
Date 2009
Event ID 588240
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/588240
The website text produced for Raasay webpages on the Forest Heritage Scotland website (www.forestheritagescotland.com).
Introduction: The isle of iron
In May 1911 William Baird and Co Ltd, ironmasters of Coatbridge bought the Isle of Raasay Estate to mine for iron ore. In 1914 the First World War broke out, just as the mine was ready to go into full production.
On the small island of Raasay thirty-six men were called to fight for their country, leaving no one to work the mine. The mine was as good as shut down before it even started.
By 1916 the German submarine campaign was preventing iron ore getting to Britain from abroad. Iron and steel were desperately needed for the war effort. The government took over the mine, with Baird & Co still running it as agents. German Prisoners of War (PoWs) were brought to the island as the workforce for the mine.
Between 1911 and 1914 Baird & Co set up the mine on the south end of the island; the remains of which you can still walk around today.
When arriving on Raasay, from Skye, you step onto the pier built in 1912 by Robert McAlpine & Sons. The pier allowed the iron ore to be easily shipped to Skye and then on to the mainland. Traces of a dismantled tramway run north from the pier; once used to transport iron ore from the mines. The railway leads to the abandoned mines, at the edge of Raasay Forest.
People Story: When enemies became friends
When Baird & Co built the Inverarish Terraces and Cottages for their workforce in 1912 they could not have envisioned that they would be used to house German PoWs.
Inverarish Terraces were adapted to be a prison by enclosing them in barbed wire fencing. The army officers, led by Captain K. G. MacLeod and charged with guarding the prisoners, stayed at Inverarish Cottages.
Despite the war, relationships between the prisoners and the islanders were good. Dr Sorley MacLean, renowned Gaelic writer, recalls as a young lad being invited to join a prisoner on a trip on the farm cart.
The prisoners were given small rations, so islanders and workers provided them with a little extra. Alex Fisher would sneak in an extra "piece", a sandwich, each day to give to a prisoner. Many prisoners made wooden toys for the local children.
The head Mining Engineer, David Munro, was highly respected by the islanders. He was gifted a beautifully made small table, inlaid with hardwood, by the PoWs suggesting that they had a similar opinion.
Munro's daughter remembers concerts at their house, where a talented PoW would play the violin.
Stories of escapes are few and none were successful. Sadly just as the war ended several of the prisoners died of illness and are buried on the island.
