Kirtomy, Horizontal Watermill

NC76SW 41.01 7432 6375.

The mill lay on the west bank of the burn which ran through the hamlet of Kirtomy. It stood north and south, facing eastwards, length about 24-25 feet (7.44m x 7.74m), breadth about one half inside measurment. The mill was thatched with straw and driven by a waterwheel.

Mackay's memories go back to the early 1830's and Dr Arthur Mitchell visited the mill in 1864 noting that the old mill was entire and unique. By 1867 it had lost its thatch and timbers and by 1873 all working parts removed so that it was unrecognisable as a mill by the Ordnance Survey who were preparing the 1873 publication of the OS 6"map, Sutherland, 1st ed., (1873). The building is marked on the map as an outline only with part of a lade but the latter had also disappeared by the publication of the OS 6"map, 2nd ed., (1904).

Kirtomy had three kilns, all egg-shaped with the door at the end and facing this was the fireplace. In the kiln of Mains, Kirtomy there stood a whinstone, octagonal in shape about 18" (0.45m) high and 15" (0.38m) in diameter and was used for making corn for broth.

A Mackay 1886; 1905; H Cheape 1984; A Mitchell 1880; OS 25"map, (1906)

Greatly reduced remains of horizontal watermill - traces still evident.