Windmill Plantation

The remains of a windmill survive in a small plantation on the the W edge of the summit (170m OD) of a ridge on the S edge of the village of Cousland.

The remains are set into the E side of an artificial mound: irregular in plan, the mound is approximately 20m broad E-W, and 35m N-S. On its S side it rises to about 1.0m; on the NW, downslope side, it rises to about 1.8m in height. Flat-topped, it falls steeply on its W side.

Set into the E side of the mound are the remains of a vaulted structure, aligned NE-SW. The opposing N and S walls, of lime mortar-bonded rubble indicate a vault of at least 8.0m in length, and 4.2m in breadth. The walls survive to a maximum height of 1.8m. Much of the facing stonework has been lost, but what survives preserves the springing of a semi-circular arch. There are no indications of a return wall at the E end of the structure, and the W ends of the walls merge into the mound. No visible remains survive of the tower on the top of the mound. However, the root plates of windthrown trees reveal considerable quantities of loose stone and lime mortar in the area that it would have occupied.

This form of windmill, comprising a low tower set upon a vaulted substructure, is conventionally attributed to the late 17th or early 18th centuries. Some indication of the date of construction may be provided by Adair’s 1682 map of East Lothian, which depicts both the Penston and Prestonpans windmills, but not that of Cousland. On the other hand, although he did mark the village itself, as Cousland lay outwith the boundary of the shire, Ainslie may not have regarded the mill’s omission as important. Its omission from the 1736 published version of the map is not significant, as this was based upon the earlier manuscript. More significantly, however, Adair’s 1683 map of Midlothian does not represent the mill, although if it had existed it would surely have been a conspicuous element of the landscape. The site is widely visible today from across the Midlothian coastal plain to the west, and distantly from the East Lothian coast to the north-east. It is now an anonymous cluster of trees on the hillcrest to the south of the plantations of the Carberry estate, but prior to the growth of the trees the windmill would have been a conspicuous landmark on the Lothian skyline.

The building is first recorded on Roy’s map of c.1750, which shows it as a circular structure, within a circular enclosure, and annotated as ‘Windmill’. Whether this implies that it was still intact and in use is, however, not apparent. It is next shown on John Lawrie’s map of 1763 as an unannotated circular building, and again in that of 1766, this time as an unannotated rectangular building, apparently standing in an area of pasture. Armstrong’s 1773 ‘Map of the Three Lothians’ depicts the mill in a small perspective view, as a small tower set on a low hill, annotated ‘Old Wind Mill’. Probably significantly, it is not portrayed as mounting sails, and presumably was now derelict.

James Knox’s map of 1816 does not mark the building of the mill, although it does show the outline of the present circular plantation, annotated ‘Old Wind Mill’. In 1828 Sharp, Greenwood and Fowler’s map depict the plantation, and within it, a ‘Tower’.

The earliest Ordnance Survey depiction, the 1:10560 scale map of 1854-6, shows a circular structure, presumably intended to represent the tower, within the treegrown enclosure, named ‘Windmill Plantation. The annotation, ‘Windmill remains of’ confirms that the mill was, by now, ruinous. The 1:2500 map of 1894 clearly depicts the rectangular vaulted structure, by then unroofed, set into the NE side of the mound. The tower is not shown, and had presumably been demolished since the 1st edition map.

The function of the mill is unclear: the existence of lime quarries and mines in its vicinity might point to its use as a pump, but its obsolescence by the later 18th century, when mining and quarrying continued, might rather point to its agricultural function, a point further confirmed by the vaulted substructure, a feature elsewhere explained as part of the grain-milling process.

Information from I Fraser. Visited 15 January 2007.

NT 37712 68107 A geophysical survey was carried 19 September 2009 over a platform to the N of the site of an

18th-century windmill. No further structures were located but two evaluation trenches confirmed the presence of the built platform on which the windmill sat, with an area of later dumping to the N. Further geophysics was carried out to the W and S of the Windmill Plantation in an attempt to locate a cist cemetery first identified by Audrey Henshall in 1954. A possible target was identified to the W.

Archive: Connolly Heritage Consultancy

Funder: Connolly Heritage Consultancy

David Connolly – Connolly Heritage Consultancy / Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society