Logan Builders & Engineering
Attribution: unknown or not recorded
From humble beginnings at Heatherlea, Muir of Ord, the company opened an office on Tulloch Street in Dingwall around 1947, allowing them more room for expansion. However, within a few years they found themselves needing yet more room and the company returned to Muir of Ord by around 1956. This time, they also brought with them ‘Ben Motors’, a company they had established in Dingwall to service and fuel their fleet of machinery and trucks.
The company also expanded to a yard and offices in Garnkirk, Muirhead, Glasgow, where all contracts from Dundee south were administered. There was also a plant fitting shop, engineering fabrication shop and engineering works along with a full administration department, all feeding back to head office in Muir of Ord, keeping their roots in the Highlands.
Attribution: not recorded or unknown
The land around Heatherlea became the builder’s yard for the company Duncan had started alongside his brother Thomas and a Mr MacDonald.
Mr MacDonald left the company in 1913 and we have yet have not been able to identify him but there was a Duncan MacDonald of Aultvaich found on the 1911 census whose occupation was ‘crofter & contactor, builder & employer’. He continued as a Mason contractor & employer on the 1921 census.
Below is a list of what work I can attribute to Duncan Logan and his family, starting in 1895.
The list is not exhaustive and is interjected with information on how the company expanded and eventually closed:
1895 – Established building company Messr’s Logan & MacDonald
1897 – Extension to Ord distillery
1901 – Nurses home at Conon
1901 – Tore Hotel
1904 – Improvements to Flowerdale House, Gairloch
1905 – Mission church at Conon Bridge in connection with established church of Ferintosh
1906 – Extension to school at Cromarty
1906 – Village Hall, Conon Bridge
1907 – Gairloch Free Presbyterian Church manse
1908 – Free Church Ferintosh (Maryburgh)
1909 – Manse & church at Conon (the Maryburgh & Ferintosh UF church)
1910 – Fearn UF church manse
1910 – Free Church Fortrose
1912 – Tarradale Public School
1914 – Bonded warehouse at Ord Distillery
1926 – The Shieling, Muir of Ord
1934 – Augmentation of Dingwalls water supply fro Loch Ussie
1938 – Reconstruction of Crannich Bridge for Ministry of Transport
1938 – Reconstruction of Beaufort castle
1939-1945 – Various building works in the North of Scotland for the war office.
1946 – Saltburn Water supply
Attribution: not recorded or unknown
By 1939 the firm employed up to 50 men at times and during the war years they carried out several military and naval works in the North.
Willie Logan’s horizons stretched far beyond the Highlands when he realised that the hydro electric works would eventually dry up and the work there had created a huge labour force of skilled construction workers in the Highlands. He set his sights on diversifying the firms’ activities and branching out into schemes for site clearing, factories, housing, bridge building and construction of roads.
Natural & Crushed Stone Aggregates Ltd
Natural & Crushed Stone Aggregates Ltd was established in 1943 to acquire the rights in minerals and clays, brickworks, quarries etc and to manufacture into marketable commodities, residuals or by-products.
Directors of the company were named as:
Duncan Logan, contractor, Heatherlea, Muir of Ord; Mrs Margaret Logan, Muir of Ord; Alistair Logan, contractor, Balaclava Buildings, Dingwall; Mrs Elizabeth Smith, 23 Overdale Gardens, Glasgow; Mrs Isobel Scott, Mansfield, Dingwall; William Logan, contractor, Parklea, Blairininch, Strathpeffer and Thomas Logan, student, Heatherlea, Muir of Ord.
1947 records show three new companies:
Duncan Logan (Builders) Ltd, Tulloch St, Dingwall – Directors; Duncan Logan, William Logan, The Park, Dingwall and Mrs Isobel F. Scott
Duncan Logan (Contractors) Ltd, Tulloch St, Dingwall – Directors; Duncan Logan, William Logan and John Boag Baird, engineer, Wrightfield, Conon Bridge.
Duncan Logan (Plant) Ltd, Tulloch St, Dingwall – Directors; Alistair Logan, Duncan Logan and William Logan
1955 – Orrin Hydro Electric Scheme
1958 – Lower Morriston Hydro Electric Scheme including Dundreggan Dam
1960 – Lothbeg Bridge, Loth
1961 – Ness Bridge
1961 – Dualling of A8, 5.5 miles stretch from Newhouse & Gallieston
1962 – Kyle of Lochalsh school
1963 – 6.5 miles stretch from Baillieston to Newhouse completed 6 months ahead of schedule
1963 – Pulp Mill, Fort William
1963 – Dunbar cement works
1963 – Gartcosh Steelworks
1963 – Extension to Inverness Royal Academy War Memorial Girls Hostel, Hedgefield, Inverness
1963 – Cumbernauld Town Centre
1963 – Lochyside junior secondary school, Fort William
1964 – Logan’s engineering moved to Glasgow base
1964 – Strathdearn hall
1965 – Extension to Lovat Arms, Beauly
1965 – Methodist Church, Union St, Inverness
1965 – House for Pulp Mill workers – Fort William
1965 – Banavie School, Corpach
1966 – 5.5 mile stretch of motorway Polmont to Falkirk bypass
1966 – Tay Road Bridge, started in 1963
1966 – New Caledonian Hotel, Church Street, Inverness
1966 – Falkirk Aluminium Factory
1966 – NATO Fuel depot at Aultbea
1966 – Hamilton College
1967 – Building of Portland Cement, cement grinding and distribution plant, Wishaw
1967 – Ord Distillery extension
1967 – Stromeferry bypass
1968 – Phase 2 of Edinburgh University’s physics & mathematics department
1968 – Warehouse at Tomatin distillery
1969 – Multi storey car park, Ayr
1969 – New Boilerhouse for Edinburgh University, King’s Buildings
1969 – Low pressure tunnel at Cruachan power station
1969 – Works linking Loch Mhor with Loch Ness at Foyers
1970 – Invergordon Smelter & Aluminium works
1970 – Inverananate to Dornie Road
1970 – Kingston Bridge
1970 – Office Block for Norwich Union at Inverness
1970 – Headquarters for the Fire Brigade at Dundee
1970 – Extension to Beattie’s Bakery, Dundee
1970 – New Terracing at Parkhead, Cleltic FC
Logan's Garage & Ben Motors
Logan’s Garage & Ben Motors were created as a means for the lorries for the Logan’s businesses to be serviced. Ben Motors was wholly owned by William Logan who employed Bill Gilbert as managing director.
Attribution: not recorded or unknown
Logan News
The many branches of the Logan company were united in the publication of the ‘Logan News’ which upon reading any of them, gives a strong feeling of community. Not only do the journals document what contracts the company were involved in, they also reported on many personal milestones of their employees including births, marriages, accomplishments, promotions, retirements and deaths. A great window into the social history of the area throughout the existence of the company.
There is an almost full set available at Dingwall Museum and another full set at the Highland Archive centre for any future researchers to find.
Attribution: not recorded or unknown
With three deaths of directors in quick succession in 1966, 67 and 68, the company collapsed financially and went into liquidation in 1970. At that time the company was still involved with various contracts around Scotland. In 1970, the company now had 1500 employees.