Windmill, Glassaugh, Fordyce

Windmill, Glassaugh, Fordyce

A four-storey circular tower windmill of rubble masonry built around 1761, standing in farmland overlooking Sandend Bay and the Moray Firth.

The tapered tower rises 7.6 metres high and measures 9.7 metres in diameter at its base, constructed of roughly squared and coursed masonry. A reefing stage—a platform designed to allow the sails to be reefed or gathered—surrounds the tower at approximately 2.8 metres high and 15.7 metres in diameter. This platform features four pended openings at ninety-degree intervals, each about 1.8 metres wide, built from more irregular rubble masonry. Above the reefing stage are three further levels. The top course of the tower is approximately 40 centimetres deep and finished in dressed masonry. Each level above the reefing stage contains three equally spaced window openings, and at the base of the structure are three equally spaced doors providing access to the platform. The openings are finished with dressed quoins, lintels and sills, while internally they feature red brick sides and arched heads.

The windmill was constructed as one of the early improving developments of the Glassaugh Estate by General James Abercrombie, who returned to the estate in 1759 after military service. Abercrombie's letter to his daughter dated 23 August 1761 records the windmill's early operation, noting that winds had "almost blown the pompon off the windmill which was only set up yesterday". According to the Old Statistical Account, the windmill was built on the site of a large cairn which was broken open revealing a cist burial, though no trace of the cairn now survives. It has been suggested that stones from the cairn may have been used in the windmill's construction.

The windmill's operational period was likely relatively short, probably superseded by the construction of Craig Mills, a nearby watermill development, in the 1770s. Taylor and Skinner's Survey of Roads (Banff to Inverness) depicts the mill as a four-sailed structure. John Thomson's map of the Northern Part of Aberdeen and Banff Shires from 1826 shows the cornmill at Craig Mills but not the windmill, indicating it was no longer in operation by this date. The Ordnance Survey first edition map of 1866 describes the site as "Old windmill (in ruins)". In 1875 Glenglassaugh Distillery opened, occupying the Craig Mills site.

No surviving historic interior features remain apart from various socket holes for flooring and machinery. Recent works have introduced new interiors including timber floors, stairs, doors and windows, and a flat roof.