East Linton, Preston Mill, Weir

GUARD Archaeology Ltd (GAL) were commissioned by the National Trust for Scotland to undertake a building recording watching brief during the consolidation and restoration of the stone built weir associated with Preston Mill. The Miller’s Weir is aligned NE-SW and built from whinstone and a conglomerate stone. Large medium and small stones laid on end formed the crest of the weir, a flat top measuring 3.6 m wide x circa 60 m long although the NW facing edge of the weir is badly eroded and only 1.4 m of the top of the weir was above water. The weir was built to a height of 1.04 m. From the crest of the weir the spillway sloped down to the SE this measured 2 m wide and was built in the same fashion as the crest of the weir. Running along the top of the SE edge and set into the top of the weir a series of degraded wooden beams were visible. These had been replaced with concrete blocks in places. A single timber beam was visible abutting the E side of one of the timbers at the top of the weir and sloping down to the SE within the fabric of the spillway. It is unclear what if any material bonded the stone construction of the original weir but roughcast concrete and cement pointing were visible forming discrete repairs to the surface fabric of the weir. Around the centre of the weir a large section of the weir had been breached and much of the stone fabric washed away, it is unclear whether this area once contained a sluice gate. The south-east section of the weir was of a different construction with a broader slipway with a less steep slope. This section was built with much larger stones and boulders and does not appear to have been repaired with concrete or cement in the past.

Information from OASIS ID: guardarc1-228184 (A Hunter Blair) 2015