Bonawe (; ) is a village in Ardchattan Parish

Argyll and Bute Argyll and Bute (; , ) is one of 32 unitary authority, unitary council areas of Scotland, council areas in Scotland and a lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area. The current lord-lieutenant for Argyll and Bute is Jane Margaret MacLeod ...

, 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 r ...

on the north shore of

Loch Etive Loch Etive (Scottish Gaelic language, Scottish Gaelic, ''Loch Eite'') is a 30 Kilometre, km loch, 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 fr ...

, 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 r ...

along on the B845 road 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 (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

''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, England. Together with the Cartmel Peninsula it forms North Lonsdale, Historic counties of England, historically an exclave of Lancashire. On 1 April 2023 it became part of the new unitary author ...

(now in

Cumbria Cumbria ( ) is a ceremonial county in North West England. It borders the Scottish council areas of Dumfries and Galloway and Scottish Borders to the north, Northumberland and County Durham to the east, North Yorkshire to the south-east, Lancash ...

) to use Furness

haematite Hematite (), also spelled as haematite, is a common iron oxide compound with the formula, Fe2O3 and is widely found in rocks and soils. Hematite crystals belong to the rhombohedral lattice system which is designated the alpha polymorph of . ...

ore with local charcoal. The same company operated the furnace until 1876. The site is in the guardianship of

Historic Scotland Historic Scotland () was an executive agency of the Scottish Government, 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 und ...

.Historic Iron Furnace
Historic Scotland.

References

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