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Mill Of Ireland
Grain Mill (Period Unassigned), Lade (Period Unassigned)
Site Name Mill Of Ireland
Classification Grain Mill (Period Unassigned), Lade (Period Unassigned)
Alternative Name(s) Mill Of Eyrland
Canmore ID 1499
Site Number HY20NE 26
NGR HY 29497 09727
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/1499
- Council Orkney Islands
- Parish Stenness
- Former Region Orkney Islands Area
- Former District Orkney
- Former County Orkney
HY20NE 26 29497 09727
(Location cited as HY 296 097). Mill of Ireland, early 20th century. A handsome three-storey rubble building, on an L plan. Converted to a house but retaining a large iron overshot wheel, fed from a lade carried on stone piers. A short distance downstream is a farm mill, now gutted, with the site of a wheel clearly visible.
J R Hume 1977.
Publication Account (1977)
(Location cited as HY 296 097). Mill of Ireland, early 20th century. A handsome three-storey rubble building, on an L plan. Converted to a house but retaining a large iron overshot wheel, fed from a lade carried on stone piers. A short distance downstream is a farm mill, now gutted, with the site of a wheel clearly visible.
J R Hume 1977.
Field Visit (22 October 1981)
According to the present owners, the mill was built in 1862. The mill consists of a slate-roofed, three-storey rubble building, built on an 'L' plan. Mill of Eyrland is extremely unusual as it had, as part of the original construction, a dwelling within it. Originally, only the West wing of the building formed the dwelling, but the conversion of the mill in the mid-1970s involved the extension of the dwelling into the kiln, which subsequently had its two ventilators removed. The South wing of the building retains the millstones and some of the machinery, which includes a winnowing machine dating from 1862.
The extrenal overshot waterwheel reamins intact, and measures 3.64m (outside diameter) by 1.3m in width. The wheel is constructed from two cast iron outer rings, and has 28 buckets. When working, it drove three pairs of millstones, the smallest of which (1.35m in diameter) ground bere meal. The other two pairs of millstones (each 1.4m in diameter) were used for shelling, and to grind oatmeal. The smaller pair of stones were manufactured from stone quarried at Yesnaby on Mainland Orkney. The shelling stones were of Derbyshire grit, and the oatmeal stones French Burr stone manufactured by Smith and Sons of Edinburgh. Part of the wooden stone bed on which the millstones is said to have come from a shipwreck at Graemsay in 1861. The absence of indigenous timber in Orkney neccessitated this type of resourcefullness. Unusually, the bridge pieces (part of the stone bed which support and allow adjustment of the top mill stone) beneath the millstones were of cast iron.
The Eastern side of the mill has a long one storey, slate-roofed building attached to it which was built before 1902 (Ordnance Survey 25-inch map, Orkney, 1901, sheet CVII.5). Also of interest is the mill lade which is carried on stone piers, as is often the case on Orkney. The flume, which contains an 'on/off' trap-door for water control to the water wheel, is constructed from wood, and the tailrace guided the water away to the West of the mill undergorund. The mill ceased operations in the 1960s. Reports during 1984 indicate that the entire mill has now been converted to a dwelling.
Visited by G J Douglas, Scottish Industrial Archaeology Survey, University of Strathclyde, 22 October 1981: RCAHMS MS/500/35/29
Note (30 July 2010)
This mill is now a bed and breakfast and is also a private dwelling house. The machinery has been retained and is used as a selling point for the bed and breakfast business.
Visited by RCAHMS (MMD/IA), 30 July 2010.
