Archaeology Notes

Event ID 706284

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/706284

NS85SW 15 84935 50778

(Location cited as NS 849 508). High Mill, built 1797. A tapering 3-storey rubble tower of circular cross section, with a later 2-storey ashlar addition, a brick square-section chimney and outbuildings at the rear. There is the condensor of a steam engine, made by Easton & Anderson of London, and most of a Tangye gas engine. The interior of the tower is not readily accessible, but is believed to contain some of the mill-work, and is thus the most complete Scottish windmill.

J R Hume 1976.

Built as a grain mill shortly after 1797, this three-storeyed circular windmill-tower stands complete to the original wall-head some 9.9m above ground. The walls have a pronounced external batter, the overall diameter at the top (4.27m) being only slightly more than half the basal diameter of 8.23m. At the date of survey (1970), adjacent ranges on the E of the tower contained the remains of a later kiln, threshing-machine and an engine-house, while on the W a two-storeyed dwelling-house and ancillary buildings were grouped around a courtyard. The mill was converted to steam power in about the middle of the 19th century, and subsequently a gas-engine was used. At the wall-head a masonry channel with indented sockets is all that now remains of the kerb of the original rotating cap.

G D Hay and G P Stell 1986.