Furnace, a post-office village in Inverary parish, Argyllshire, on the shore of Loch Fyne, in the mouth of Glenleacainn, 8 miles SSW of Inverary town. It took its name from an iron smelting work of the early part of the present century, but it now depends on the great granite quarry of Dun Leacainn, started in 1841, and rendered famous by its ' monster blasts ' of Oct. 1871, Sept. 1876, and Sept. 1880. In the glen, a little way above the village, is a gunpowder manufactory, consisting of small houses scattered over a considerable area.

(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)