Mill Hill, Ballantrae

NX08SE 8 09027 83221

(NX 0903 8322) Windmill (NR) (remains of)

OS 1:10000 map (1979)

A tower mill, probably dating from the late 17th or early 18th centuries, which was ruinous by the 1790s. It is marked on Armstrong's map of 1773-5, by which time it was probably disused. The rubble-built remains stand 24ft high and 15ft in diameter over 3ft thick walls.

I L Donnachie and N K Stewart 1967

The remains of the mill are generally as described. There are doorways on the SW and NE and small slit windows. Extending from the NW for about 6m are the remains of the vaulted underground granary which leads to the basement. A hollow-way runs down the hill from it.

Visited by OS (JP) 4 January 1971

(Location cited as NX 091 833). Ballantrae Windmill, late 17th or early 18th century. A well-preserved rubble, 'vaulted-tower' windmill.

J R Hume 1976.

No change to the previous field report.

Visited by OS (JRL), 11 March 1977

EXTERNAL REFERENCE

SRO

Building of a windmill at a cost of #75 stg.

Contract between John, Lord Bargany, and James Johnston, carpenter in Dumfries.

1684. GD109/3279

Cylindrical speckled masonry tower, with remains of rubble vault extending to west. Segment headed doorways on north and south sides, small openings above south door. Pair of relieving arches above vault.

One of 12 surviving vaulted tower Windmills, a type rarely found outside Scotland. These comprise by far the oldest group of industrial buildings in the country. This mill is the least altered of the group, except for the untypically short mill at Hill House, Dunfermline. The Mill was a ruin at the time of the first Ordnance Survey in 1855. (Historic Scotland)