Fair Isle, Shirva Mill

HZ27SW 200.01 2164 7194

HZ 216 719 Deposits likely to be affected by the restoration of this horizontal mill were excavated by a team of volunteers. The environs of the mill had previously been examined by J Hunter of Bradford University, and the extensive mill system had been surveyed by RCAHMS. The current excavations defined the construction pit in the burn side, and located what was felt to be a primary floor. A secondary floor surface had been constructed out of disused lower millstones, and the central area of the upper house was flanked by two crude drystone and turf sack benches. A roughly cobbled area to the side of the mill was probably for sack/creel or peat storage, and the mill was found to have been connected to Old Mill, the first of the three mills in this fragment of the system, by a narrow cobbled path.

Perhaps the most rewarding information to come from the work was the in situ discovery of the sole tree (on which the tirl sat) and the bolster plate (to which the sole tree was attached). The sole tree not only retained the sile plate on which the tirl revolved, but also included the joint for the lightening tree (by which the upper millstone was raised or lowered). The excavations, combined with photographs of the mill in use and disuse, produced sufficient information for the reliable reconstruction of the building in its secondary form. It is hoped also to reconstruct New Mill, and the buildings and the system as a whole will be interpreted for visitors.

Sponsers: National Trust for Scotland, Shetland Amenity Trust

R Turner 1994