Cliftoncote, Mill Pond, Dam And Lades

NT82SW 73.02 80344 23161 to 80375 22363

On gently sloping ground between Cliftoncote Farm and the base of a moderate slope there is a mill-pond which measures 40m from N to S by 29m. There is a dam at the N end and a mill-lade feeds into the pond from the S.

The mill-lade, which captured the water from an unnamed burn some 830m to the S of Cliftoncote Farm at NT 8056 2237, runs northwards cutting gently across the contours of the moderate E-facing slope overlooking the Bowmont Water and obliquely across an enclosure (NT82SW 132) and a farmstead (NT82SW 134) before entering the mill-pond at NT 8079 2320. The mill-lade up to 2m in width and 0.4m in depth with an external bank on the E which measures 1.5m in width by 0.3m in height.

The mill-lade may have originally been joined by a second mill-lade crossing the extreme SSW angle of the extensive area of contour cultivation (NT82SW 26) on the lower slopes of Cushat End and Hownam Law. It survives as a drain with a low bank on the downhill side (between NT 8044 2311 and NT 8049 2303). This bank could be traced for about 110m and is about 1m wide and 0.5m high. It ends at the burn skirting the upper limits of the improvement field-system though there is a suggestion that the burn has been diverted and that its original course may continued across the improved field to join the main mill-lade at NT 8079 2317. The original line of the burn survives as a shallow depression visible within the improved ground.

Information from RJ Mercer (University of Edinburgh) 23 March 1987

RCAHMS MS/2598. No. 10/084