Ground Survey

Date 1 June 2011 - 30 September 2011

Event ID 963585

Category Recording

Type Ground Survey

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/963585

NO 6366 0986 A rectified vertical photographic survey by aerial drone was made, between 1 June–30 September 2011, of features associated with the tide mill near Fife Ness, where a natural basin has been enhanced by the construction of stone-built barrages on either side of a rock outcrop to create a reservoir some 100 x 70m in extent when filled by the incoming tide. A channel cut through the central outcrop acted as a mill race, with slots to accommodate a mill-wheel (presumably retractable) and associated structures. The footings of the southern barrage indicate a cohesive single-phase structure, straight-built with squared facings set lengthwise and a rubble fill, while the longer northern barrage is curvilinear and much less regular, with edge-set facings and evidence of multiple phasing.

Stone foundations and rock cutting just beyond the southern end of the S barrage indicate the presence of a building. Local information in 1968 suggested that the footings were those of a two-storey structure.

The OSA for Crail (1790-91) notes that of the two corn mills then functioning in the parish ‘one … is turned by salt water, admitted during flood tide into a reservoir, and discharged upon a wheel after the tide has ebbed’. No subsequent reference to it has been found, and it may be presumed to have ceased operating early in the 19th century. The multiple phasing and vernacular character of the northern barrier suggests that the system may have functioned from a considerably earlier date, with the rebuilding of the southern barrier representing a final phase.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Morvern Maritime Centre and Edward Martin Photography, 2011