Machrimore Mill, Kintyre

Built in 1839, under the terms of a new lease granted by the Duke of Argyll apparently to replace an earlier foundation, this small grain-mill may be regarded as fairly typical of the countless water-powered vertical mills formerly serving country districts during the 19th century. An inscribed stone over the rear ground-floor entrance bears the date 1839 and a mason's mark. In common with the neighbouring mill at Tangy, with which its design had close affinities, it was one of the last two water-mills to remain in operation in Kintyre, finally stopping in the late 1950s; soon afterwards most of its machinery was removed. Situated in the small township of Machrimore, about 1.2km NE of Southend, the three-storeyed mill stands on a sloping site, with a principal entrance on the E side at mid-floor level. It is constructed of rubble masonry with sandstone dressings and a slated roof, notable features being the characteristic revolving ridge-ventilator above the kiln at the S end , and the windows fitted in the lower part with ventilating shutters.

Water for driving the machinery was drawn from the Corrieglen Water via a lade approaching the mill from the N, and two sluices regulated the water-flow and discharged the excess into the neighbouring burn; at one time the supply was augmented by a large shallow mill-pond long since drained. From the lade the water was carried on to the wheel by a wooden trough, or launder, where it discharged at a point which caused the wheel to turn in a pitch-back action. The water-wheel was equipped with wooden buckets, but was otherwise of all-iron construction . A waste-water trapdoor in the floor of the launder, operated by a system of levers from inside the mill, enabled the flow of water, and hence the speed of the machinery, to be regulated.

The machinery for working the mill and the ancillary processing equipment is detailed in the accompanying drawings, and is disposed over three storeys known as the bottom, middle and top floors. The transmission on the bottom floor, housed within a stoutly timber-framed gear-cupboard, comprised a bevelled pit-wheel on the water-wheel axle, meshing with a wallower on the lower end of the upright shaft, the drive to the stones being through the great spur-wheel, cogged to engage with three slotted pinions or stone nuts. All the gearing was of iron construction apart from the spur-wheel, whose mortised iron rim was equipped with replaceable wooden cogs. The stone nuts could be disengaged from the spur-wheel by means of a ring-and-screw lifting-device, and their spindles, carrying the runner stones above, were mounted on timber beams or bridge trees, pivoted at one end so that they could also be raised or lowered for adjusting the clearance between the runner and bedstones-a process known as tentering. In addition, the thrust-bearings were housed in bridging-boxes incorporating hackle screws which allowed careful adjustment of the spindle in order to keep the stones rotating in a perfectly horizontal plane.

The middle floor, or stones floor, contained three sets of stones each approximately 3 ft 3in (0.99m) in diameter grouped around the upright drive-shaft. Each unit was enclosed within a circular wooden casing, or at, above which was a grain-hopper held within a wooden frame, or horse. From the hopper the grain was shaken into the centre, or eye, of the stones via a pivoted feed-trough kept in constant motion by means of a cam in the form of a forked iron rod attached to the revolving rynd and spindle turning the runner stone. The trough was held lightly in tension against the cam-known as the damsel-by means of a cord attached to a wooden spring stapled to the side of the horse; a second cord (the crook string) likewise attached to the free end of the trough enabled its angle to be adjusted. The grinding surfaces of the stones were cut with a system of lands and furrows to facilitate the grinding action and to cast the meal to the outer edge of the stones; here it was swept along into an outlet chute by a projecting tag affixed to the rim of the runner stone. Also on this floor, situated directly beneath the ceiling and mounted on the head of the upright shaft, was a bevelled crown-wheel which provided the main power take-off for driving the auxiliary machinery, namely the bucket elevators, fanners and sieving-apparatus.

On the top floor, mounted high up under the ridge, was the mechanical sack-hoist, driven from a jointed extension of the main shaft in the form of a clutch-shaft and pinion which by means of a lever was put into gear with a bevel wheel fixed to the winding-drum. Two control cords, running in sheave blocks and accessible to the miller at all levels, enabled him to pull the drive-shaft into gear and to release it by activating a counterweight. Yhe same clutch mechanism could also be worked by an automatic cut-out operated by an ingenious system of levers when struck by the rising sack at its highest point.

The principal stages in the milling process may be enumerated in association with the location points shown on the plans and section. The newly dried grain (A) was raked into the grain-bin (B), where it was bagged (C) and hoisted through double flap hatchdoors to the top floor (D). Here, if the material was intended for animal feed (e.g. pease, beans or grain of inferior quality), it was fed via a hopper (E) into the w pair of stones (F) and, after being ground, passed through the outlet chute into waiting sacks on the ground floor (G on the plan). Alternatively, as the first stage in producing oatmeal, the grain was fed via a similar pair of hoppers and cleaning-sieves into the E pair of stones (H and l), known as shelling- or groating-stones, where the husks were removed from the kernels. The resulting mixture fell through a chute into the fanners or winnowing-machine (J) situated in the ground-floor outshot, where the chaff was removed and used to supplement the coke as fuel for the kiln. The cleaned grain, then known as groats, was next returned to the loft by the elevator (K) and thence by the hopper (L) into the centre set of finishing-stones (M)-a pair of French block-burrs. The ground meal fell into a sieving-machine (N) on the bottom floor, where it was sorted into different grades and bagged for dispatch. Rejected coarse stuff was passed through a small fanner (O) and then returned to the stones by the elevator (P) for regrinding. For extra refining, the meal could be recycled through the sieving-apparatus by a short elevator at (Q).

The kiln was of the standard pattern, containing at the lower level a central furnace built of stone and lined with brick. It was surmounted by a flared funnel of brick-vaulted construction, wherein the hot air was allowed to circulate and percolate through the grain spread over the drying floor,which consisted of perforated cast-iron plates. The revolving ridge ventilator assisted the drying process, which lasted from one to two days depending on the type of grain and the amount of moisture content to be removed.

Information from RCAHMS ‘Monuments of Industry: An Illustrated Historical Record’, (1986). Visited 1962.