Elgin, Toll Cottage

NJ 23851 62353 (centred on) A historic building survey was undertaken, 18 August 2017, prior to demolition works on the site of Waukmill. A steading complex, house, and U-shaped structure were all recorded.

Wauk mills were water-driven mills where cloth, particularly woollen cloth, was cleansed and thickened. The 1868–71 OS Name Books referred to Waukmill as ‘a small farm steading with suitable outbuildings, it is from one to two -storeys high, slated and in good repair. Property of AJ Wharton Duff of Orton.’, and to Waukmill Cottage as ‘a handsome cottage situated adjacent to the farm steading of this name, it is one-storey high, slated and in good repair. Property of AJ Wharton Duff of Orton.’ The 1st Edition OS map shows a group of three buildings, the northern two of which represent the mill and consist of the house and a steading depicted as separated buildings, the first of which has an unroofed attached building or enclosure against the NW wall.

Part of the steading and a house occupy the footprint of a cottage and steading shown on late 19th-century 1st Edition OS maps, both of which have been subsequently altered and extended over the years. Dressed stone within the fabric of the steading and found incorporated into a revetment wall S of the cottage indicate that 19th-century or earlier structural remains could be represented. The remaining structures appear to be 20th-century in date.

Archive: NRHE

Funder: Grampian Furnishings

Sam Williamson – AOC Archaeology Group

(Source: DES, Volume 18)