Archaeology Notes

Event ID 847326

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/847326

ND34SW 287 30021 44826

The roofless shell of this threshing mill, which is situated 130m NW of its associated farmstead (ND34SW 312), measures 12.5m from NE to SW by 5.5m transversely over lime-mortared, coursed flagstone walls. The wheel-pit is on its NW side and contains the remains of an overshot, composite wheel. Two wide entrances are opposed to each other at the NE end of the mill, and there is also a doorway in the SW gable, which was served by a trackway running SE in the general direction the farmstead. The grass- and nettle-grown interior is terraced back into the rising ground and has a flagged floor, strewn with components of the wheel-gearing mechanism. Two rectangular sockets above the embrasure for the drive-shaft in the NW wall probably held members of the wooden frame of the mechanism.

The pond that supplied water to power the mill is situated 80m to the WSW and is retained at its E end by a grass-grown, coursed rubble dam (YARROWS04 561) measuring 8.5m in length by 1m in thickness and about 1.5m in height. A lade extends from the S end of the dam towards the mill, and an overflow at the N end carries excess water from the pond into a drain. This drain, which is crossed by a bridge (YARROWS04 473) of flagstones resting on coursed rubble abutments about 30m E of the dam, runs past the N side of the mill. The tail-race flows from the wheel-pit into the drain.

The mill is depicted roofed on both the 1st and 2nd editions of the OS 6-inch map (Caithness 1877, sheet xxix; 1907, sheet xxix).

(YARROWS04 472, 473, 561)

Visited by RCAHMS (ATW) 12 August 2004