Finzean Sawmill

Finzean Sawmill

This is an early 19th-century mill complex with associated buildings situated on the Water of Feugh. The site comprises mill buildings predominantly timber-framed with vertically boarded timber cladding on granite rubble base courses, with the kiln and mill cottage built in granite rubble with tooled dressings and long and short quoins. Boarded timber doors and 2-pane skylights are typical throughout, with corrugated-iron and steel roofs.

Water Supply and Control

Water is supplied by a series of lades flowing from west to east from the Water of Feugh, controlled at a weir to the south of the mill buildings by means of a sluice gate. These lades have been rebuilt in timber and concrete. The northern lade drives the sawmill wheel. The southern lade is divided horizontally into upper and lower sections: the upper lade drives a small central generator wheel and discharges into the tail-race of the sawmill wheel, while the lower lade discharges into the combined tail-race of the sawmill and generator wheels to drive the Turning Mill wheel.

Sawmill

The sawmill stands to the west of the site and is a single-storey structure with a basement, rectangular in plan, with a boarded timber walkway oversailing the entrance to the basement at the east. Openings face north, west, and east. A 16-foot double cast-iron frame start and awe wheel is set in granite to the south elevation. The interior retains sawmill machinery in good working order.

Generator House

To the east of the sawmill is a single-storey rectangular-plan lean-to structure with a door flanked by a 3-pane window to the east. It contains a small wheel driving an electricity generator for the Turning Mill to the south.

Turning Mill

The Turning Mill stands to the east of the Generator House as a single-storey building with an attic, rectangular in plan, with a single-storey ancillary structure adjoining to the east and a further single-storey rectangular-plan ancillary structure beyond. A boarded timber walkway to the south crosses the lade between the two ancillary structures. Two boarded timber doors face the gabled north elevation, with a saw for timber positioned opposite the left door. A cast-iron wheel is set in the gablehead. Broad small-pane windows light the ground floor to the west and east elevations, with skylights to the attic. A 10-foot double cast-iron frame start and awe wheel is set in a granite wall to the south elevation, with a window set in the gablehead above. The interior retains turning mill machinery on the ground floor and in the attic, both in good working order.

Kiln, Stack and Smiddy

To the north of the Turning Mill is a square-plan kiln, formerly wood-fired but now steam-operated, with corrugated steel and boarded timber lean-to additions. A door flanked by a window faces west, and a cast-iron fire box access is set to the south under a corrugated lean-to. A timber lean-to smiddy to the east retains pulleys, belt-driven metal lathes, and bellows for a forge (restored in 1999). The north elevation is obscured by hill slope. The roof comprises flat steel sheeting with timber battens. The interior has a slatted floor with pipework below. A coped square-plan red brick stack on a granite rubble base stands to the north of the kiln.

Former Bus Garage

To the northwest of the Turning Mill is a single-storey square-plan former Bus Garage, constructed on stilts to the south. It has two 2-leaf doors to the north elevation and windows to the centre of the west and south elevations, with a polythene-covered window opening to the east. A grey slate pyramidal roof with skylights and tiled ridges crowns the building.

Mill Cottage and Ancillary Structures

North of the kiln on the opposite side of the valley road stands a single-storey and attic cottage orne of three bays with a flat-roofed modern addition to the outer right.

The south elevation features a gableted timber porch with a latticed gablehead advanced to the centre of the ground floor on rusticated timber columns, with a boarded glazed timber door and a window to each flanking bay. Two gableted bipartite dormers sit to the left and right of the attic, with a skylight to the centre.

The east elevation is gabled but largely obscured by the modern addition. The north elevation was not visible at the time of survey in 1999. The west elevation is gabled and blank.

The windows are predominantly 4 and 2-pane timber sashes with top hoppers. The cottage is roofed in grey slate with overhanging eaves and a tiled ridge. Coped granite gablehead stacks with circular cans project from the roof.

To the west of the cottage are two boarded timber ancillary structures, one incorporating a three-bay traditional cottage with corrugated roof, formerly a stable for horses used to move timber for the sawmill.

Bridge

A flat-arched double-span bridge over the River Feugh stands to the southeast of the mills. It features a central granite ashlar cutwater flanked by pink granite wing walls. The road surface comprises boarded timber on steel supports with slatted timber parapets.