Weir And Sluice Gate, Bucket Mill, Finzean

Weir And Sluice Gate, Bucket Mill, Finzean

Dating from 1853, this is a mill complex comprising a bucket mill with adjoining sawmill, kiln, stable and cart house, and a separate cottage. The buildings are predominantly timber-framed with vertically boarded timber cladding on granite rubble base courses, except for the kiln and mill cottage which are built in harled and pointed granite rubble with tooled dressings and long and short quoins. Doors are boarded timber, and roofs are corrugated iron and steel.

Lade, Weir and Sluice

A boarded timber lade flows from west to east from the Water of Feugh, positioned to the south of the mill buildings, and powers the bucket mill wheel. A sluice to the west of the wheel is controlled by a beam operated by chain from inside the bucket mill. A weir and sluice positioned to the west of the site controls the flow of water from the River Feugh.

Bucket Mill and Sawmill

The bucket mill is a single-storey building with an attic, arranged in three bays on an L-plan, with a sawmill adjoining. The north elevation is asymmetrical, featuring an advanced gabled bay to the left with a door to the ground floor flanked by a 9-pane window, and a boarded timber opening in the gablehead surmounted by a window. The roof sweeps down over the sawmill to flanking bays on the right, where there is a ramp flanked by slatted timber openings.

The west elevation is near-symmetrical, with a granite rubble flue capped with brick running through both ground and attic floors and flanked by windows on either side; the adjoining sawmill has a central opening.

The south elevation is asymmetrical and features a 13 feet 6 inches diameter timber start and awe wheel mounted on a double cast-iron frame housed in a corrugated steel-faced bay to the right. Two window openings flank this to the left, and a timber walkway crosses the lade to the wheel on the outer right.

The east elevation is asymmetrical, with a gabled bay to the left containing windows to both ground and first floors, an off-centre door to the left at basement level leading to the mill wheel workings, and two windows in the flanking bays to the right.

The building contains a variety of small-pane replacement windows with timber frames and a gablehead stack to the west. The bucket mill and sawmill machinery survives in good working order.

Kiln

A small single-storey rectangular-plan kiln stands to the north of the bucket mill, with boarded timber gables. A boarded timber ramp to the south leads to the door, with a cast-iron firebox access below the ramp. A brick gablehead stack to the north features a circular can. The interior contains a firebox running the length of the kiln, surmounted by a slatted floor.

Stable and Cart House

To the northwest of the bucket mill stands a single-storey rectangular-plan stable building, used as a shop when the mill was open to the public. The east elevation has a central door flanked by irregularly placed windows, and the north gablehead contains a boarded timber opening. The west elevation has one window to the left, and the south elevation has two windows. Timber-framed windows are throughout.

Cottage

A separate cottage stands to the north of the kiln on the opposite side of the valley road. It is single-storey with an attic, arranged in three bays on a rectangular plan.

The south (entrance) elevation is symmetrical, featuring a gableted boarded timber porch with a latticed gable to the centre of the ground floor, a panelled timber door surmounted by a tooled datestone reading "P.B. 1855" (Peter Brown), and windows to each flanking bay. Two boarded timber gableted dormers are positioned to the left and right bays of the attic floor.

The east elevation is gabled and blank. The west elevation is asymmetrical and gabled, with the base of a flue advanced at ground floor level, flanked to the left by a window.

The cottage features modern timber-framed glazing with top hoppers to the ground floor, and timber sash and case windows to the attic floor. It has a purple-grey slate roof with tiled ridge, stone skews, and coped granite gablehead stacks with circular and octagonal cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods complete the exterior.