Broomhill, Mill

NH55SW 27 NH 5192 5015

The overshot mill wheel was built into the south west wing of the farm steading of Broomhill. In the late 19th/early 20th century a square steading with a roofed central cattle fold replaced an earlier U-shaped building (OS 1st edition 1:2500 Ross and Cromarty map XCIX, plan 8, surveyed 1876). A mill lade ran to the south west wing of the older steading, but it is likely that the mill used in the 20th century was built with the later steading. The wooden buckets of an older mill wheel were replaced by metal ones in a cast iron frame in the 1930s. With the introduction of electricity into the steading in c.1950 the mill wheel became disused, but the machinery continued in use until the 1970s.

A threshing mill and a bruiser were powered by the mill wheel, the drive belt being shifted manually from one drive wheel to the other. However, the water supply from the dam was at times insufficient to power the mill; then, a Fordson tractor was used to drive the threshing mill, using a belt linked to a wheel visible on the wall above the water wheel. The bruiser, requiring less power, could be driven on all occasions by the water wheel. Both the threshing mill and bruiser were fed from the sheaf loft above; bruised oats or barley were collected in bags below; threshed grain was carried up and over into the granary by way of an enclosed wooden elevator with steel cups set in a canvas belt. Below the granary, the ground level of the farm's south wing was occupied by the mill and bruiser machinery, the straw barn, chaff house and storage; the stable, in the south eastern end, had a chute for delivery of grain from the granary.

Until c.1950 this farm also used a mobile threshing mill driven by a traction engine, owned by the MacLennan family. Threshing time was a big occasion, when neighbouring farmers cooperated to get the job done in a day. Along with the use of water wheels, this practice ceased as electricity provided a reliable power supply on farms, and combine harvesters became more efficient at threshing the grain. The bruiser continued in use at Broomhill for at least ten years longer than the threshing mill.

There is little evidence that the mill at Broomhill was ever the mill used by other farms on the Ord Estate, except informally. Thus it is unlikely that the name Ord Mill was ever applied to Broomhill. Ord Mains (NH55SW 24 NH 5150 5003), lying adjacent to Broomhill to the west, had its own mill wheel. Here, an overshot water wheel was set below ground level to the west of the steading, and was used to power a threshing mill and a saw mill.

A tenant at Broomhill is named in the Old Parish Register of the parish of Urray dated 1756.

A more convincing location for the Mill of Ord (named in the census of 1841) is likely to have been near where the Ord Distillery (NH55SW 25 NH 5185 5075) now stands. Evidence for this location appears in 19th century Sasine Abridgements (August 13 1804): Mill or Miln of Ord was also known as the Miln of Kinquhilladrum. Kinqhuilladrum, in several spelling variations, appears as an ancient manor place, identified with the neighbouring Highfield estate. The name is perpetuated in the farm of Dreim or Druim, now called Barevan, which lies west of the Distillery. In the 18th century the farm of Dreim was on the Highfield Estate rather than Ord, but the MacKenzies of Ord were the proprietors of Ord Mill (Valuation Roll 1756 E106/28/1 West Register House).

The Ord Estate, on which Broomhill, at about 150 acres, was one of the larger farms, was broken up and sold in the 1930s. Broomhill and Ord Mains were initially retained by the proprietor, and later were acquired by the Lovat Estate. Broomhill remained as a tenanted farm until it was sold when the last tenant retired in 1981. Since then, the mill wheel has been sold for scrap, the mill dismantled, and the steading, although still used by one of the present owners, has fallen into disrepair.

(Information from the family of the last tenant, Mr Duncan C. Ross.

AC 12 December 2002).