Glen Righ, Creag Nam Meall
Slate Quarry (Post Medieval), Spoil Heap (Post Medieval)
Site Name Glen Righ, Creag Nam Meall
Classification Slate Quarry (Post Medieval), Spoil Heap (Post Medieval)
Canmore ID 285927
Site Number NN06SE 24
NGR NN 06607 64074
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/285927
- Council Highland
- Parish Kilmallie
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Lochaber
- Former County Inverness-shire
Well preserved slate building adjacent to exposed slate quarry, left as when abandoned (Historic Scotland 2007).
Field Visit (July 2014)
Lochaber, Gleann Righ, Creag Nam Meall, NN06SE 24.00 Slate Quarry and Spoil Heap
See also:
NN06SE 24.01 Outbuilding
NN06SE 24.02 Outbuilding
NN06SE 24.03 Building
This abandoned slate quarry is depicted but not named on the Ordnance Survey 6-inch map (Inverness-shire (Mainland), surveyed 1870 (published 1873), sheet CLXVI) and on Ordnance survey 6-inch map (Inverness-shire (Mainland), surveyed 1899 (published 1903), sheet CLXVI). The quarry workings measure 40.0m in length north west by south east and 30.0m in width south west by north east and cover an area of some 900 square metres. The attendant spoil heap clearly shows a tipping level. The south east extent of the soil heap lies close to an unroofed building (NN06NE 24.01). The road along which the slate (in the form of completed roof slates for which evidence is visible and, perhaps, building material) was transported from the slate quarry down to the Gleann Righ road (which leads west to Onich) ran from NN96576 64049 to NN06042 63014. The forestry plantation now overlies part of this route. The access road at the quarry has been revetted for a short stretch around NN0660 6405 as it moves west and downhill. The geological and topographical conditions made the winning of the almost in-exhaustable slate difficult requiring, in the case of Creag nam Meall, a cart ride of some 3.6 miles (5.8 km) to Onich through difficult terrain.
The Object Name book (ONB), Inverness-shire, Mainland (1876-78, Book 38, 146) does not mention the quarry suggesting that it had been abandoned by that time. The ONB mentions that Creag nam Meall (Rock of the Hillocks) into which the quarry is cut, was within the estate of Donald Cameron of Lochiel (24th Lochiel, Chief of Clan Cameron). Creag nam Meall is now in a Forestry Commission plantation.
The slate outcrop at Creag nam Meall sits within the Ballachulish slates which are found on the south side of Loch Leven running south west for 6 miles and north east of Loch Leven, and from North Ballachulish Quarry to 1.5 miles east of Onich and north east for 7.5 miles almost to Glen Nevis. Such quarries in the Ballachulish area supplied slate to a country where a durable roofing material was needed (J E Richey and J G C Anderson, 1944)
Visited by RCAHMS (MMD/IA), 30th July 2014.
