West Milldens, Watermill
Watermill (Period Unassigned)
Site Name West Milldens, Watermill
Classification Watermill (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Milldens Mill; West Milldens, Cornmill
Canmore ID 34963
Site Number NO55SW 67
NGR NO 54519 50580
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/34963
- Council Angus
- Parish Aberlemno
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Angus
- Former County Angus
NO55SW 67.00 54519 50580
NO55SW 67.01 54524 50564 Bridge
NO55SW 67.02 54564 50575 Cottage
(Location cited as NO 545 506). Milldens Mill, 17th century, rebuilt 1756 and 1858. A three-storey rubble building on an L-plan structure, with a two-storey rubble addition. The lade is carried in part on a rubble wall to an internal wheel. Datestone 1685 presumably came from an earlier building. Restored.
J R Hume 1977
Publication Account (2013)
The small river Lunan flows east from lochs around Forfar to the sea at Lunan Bay and was attractive to the Arbroath manufacturers, in the same way that the Dighty was to Dundee, for bleaching (at Friockheim, demolished) plash mills and small water-powered spinning mills. It also has a number of corn mills along its route. (a) Milldens Mill by a bridge, Aberlemno (datestones 1685 and 1756, rebuilt 1858 waterwheel positioned to drive a threshing machines as well as two pairs of stones, oatmeal until 1930, animal feed thereafter, and not now in use as a mill. (b) Hatton Flax Mill (E of the corn mill of that name), founded in 1807, part rebuilt 1883, steam added 1826, with its own gas-holder, (c) Hattonden (1819, Wm Dear, and a 3HP steam engine from 1824, flax machinery for
sale in 1848, worker’s barracks still identifiable) and (d) Gightyburn (1796-1845, Williamson Bros) Flax Mills were all out of use by 1900 and now are
ruinous. (e ) Boysack Mill: flax spinning in 1860-67, later corn, rebuilt 1958, went out of use but was still complete when recorded in the 1980s, now
in residential use.
M Watson, 2013