Barnhourie Mill, Sandyhills

Description:

Barnhourie Mill is an L-plan, two-storey, former corn mill, dating to around the late 18th century. The mill is set on a steeply sloping site with an external timber and iron waterwheel on the north side of the two-storey east end next to the Barnhourie Burn. Former grain storerooms are attached to the northwest elevation of the mill. It is built in whitewashed random rubble with rough-hewn quoins.

The principal (southwest) elevation is on sloping ground and the two-storey section to the right houses the mill machinery. It has a central doorway with gablet over the door flanked by short windows. The southwest elevation of the attached grain store features two timber boarded doors each with a small two-pane window to the right. The mill has a slate roof with small cast-iron rooflights.

The interior of the mill retains some 18th or 19th century machinery including three millstones and a significant amount of the mill machinery gearing wheels. The grain storerooms feature a fireplace and some boarded wall panelling.

In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: detached cottage to northwest.

Historical development

A settlement at Barnhourie is first marked on James Dorritt's 1750 map and also on Roy's 1752 Map of the Lowlands both of which name it as "Barnhurry". The first edition Ordnance Survey Map (surveyed 1849, published 1854) shows the named the Barnhourie Mill and neighbouring cottage to the northwest along with the former large mill dam and other buildings in the shoreline hamlet of Sandyhills. The Mill is shown on this map in its current footprint and the neighbouring cottage is shown with a rectangular plan form. A third, small rectangular-plan building is shown to the rear of the cottage. The Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1848-51 describes Barnhourie Mill as 'a corn mill having a detached dwelling house'. By the time of the 1893 Ordnance Survey Map the third building to the rear of the cottage has been demolished and the cottage is shown with various small additions to the rear. The mill dam is also shown partially infilled on this map. Barnhourie Mill is labelled as 'disused' on the 1907 Ordnance Survey map.

An aerial photograph on Canmore from around 1963 appears to show the buildings in their current form