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| Lecht Mine from the Car Park |
featured the Lecht mine in their Winter newsletter reprinted here. The mine is easily reached by a pleasant short walk from the car park on the Lecht road.
The Lecht mine
• Iron ore was first mined at the Lecht in 1730 by
York Buildings Company of London. The mine was abandoned in 1737 due to
substantial losses.
• The mined ore was transported on horseback across
the Avon at the Fordmouth-Lynachork ford, and then over the Dorback Hills to
Nethy Bridge. Wood from the Abernethy Forest was used to smelt it down into
“Strathdoun (Strathavon) pigs”.
• The mine was re-opened in 1841 by the Duke of
Richmond as a manganese mine, local stories tell that the Minister of Corgarff
had to lend his bull to help drag the new heavy rollers over the Lecht Pass.
However following the importation of manganese ore from Russia, the price fell
from £8 per ton to an uneconomical £3 per ton, and the mine was closed for a
final time in 1846.
• At the peak of activity over 60 men and boys worked
at the mine and it was, and still is, the largest manganese mine ever worked in
Scotland.
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| Lecht Mine building still standing - last used 1846 |
• In 1863 there was nearly a reprieve for
the old mine when samples of iron ore were sent to James Morrison, Manager of
the Ferryhill Iron Works, Co Durham, for assessment. He would gladly have taken
50,000 tons per annum, and all that was needed to secure viability for the
re-opening of the mine was a railway link to Tomintoul, but in that time of
economic retrenchment no-one could be found to back the proposed iron ore
railway.
• The foundations of some other buildings can still be
seen, but only the mine building has survived as it was very solidly built to
carry the water wheel and heavy machinery.
• The mine building was restored and reroofed and
interpretation about the mine workings
installed in a joint project between The Crown Estate and Moray Council.
