Field Visit
Date 2009
Event ID 615800
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/615800
Bridge of Weir – Burngill Mills
Mills, lades, dams and tunnels
Stuart Nisbet
On the W side of the remains of the Bridge of Weir Dam No 1 on the River Gryfe (NS 3846 6584), are a curving rubble headrace and broken timber sluice gate. These are the first of a succession of four dams or weirs on a 1km length of the River Gryfe, serving at least eight separate water-powered mill sites, each of which supported numerous mill types.
In an upstream arch of a railway viaduct is an arched entrance to the surviving brick-lined Burngill lade tunnel.
This continues under a derelict man-made terrace (centred on NS 3855 6583), which supported Burngill Cotton Mill (1792) and Burngill Leather Tannery (initially a waulk mill, from the 1770s). The terrace is retained by a 5m high rubble wall on the edge of the Gryfe. The lade terminates in the Burngill tailrace in the river wall (NS 3858 6587), an arched rubble tunnel 2m wide x 1.5m high that exits through a partly collapsed arch and training wall, just upstream of the A761 road bridge.