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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 783758

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/783758

HY41SW 48.00 44387 11337

HY41SW 48.01 44351 11356 Ayre Mill House

HY41SW 48.02 44370 11343 4 - 9 Ayre Mill

(Location cited as HY 443 113). Ayre Mill (corn), late 19th century. A massive three-storey and attic, 12-bay range, with a kiln at each end. Now an egg-packing station.

J R Hume 1977.

Ayre Mill is a massive 19th century three storey, twelve bay building with a kiln at each end. There is a dwelling house attached to the kiln at the W end. The kiln at the E end is dated 1868 and along with the W kiln has crow-stepped gables. The mill's waterwheel used to be located in a wood and sheet metal building with slate roof attached to the end of the dwelling house. In the days of milling, the house possibly contained the millstones and associated machinery, all of which, along with the wheel, is gone. The mill ceased operations in 1940, after which the wheel was removed and the enclosing building demolished. One pair of millstones was sent to Rapness Mill in Westray. The site is especially important as it represents one of Scotland's few remaining tide mills.

The mill has had an interesting and varied history. It was originally established in 1839 as a water-powered sawmill. The mill was then converted to a meal mill sometime during the second half of the 19th century. By the time the meal mill closed in 1940 it had been converted to steam power (see NMRS MS/500/35/28, copy of Kirkwall Library photograph ref. no. 1397 showing boiler chimney). Since 1940, the mill has been used as a barracks and an egg packing station (until the late 1960s), becoming disused in the early 1970s.

Visited by Scottish Industrial Archaeology Survey, 23 October 1981.

see also NMRS MS/500/35/28.

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