Balmossie Mill, Monifieth

Balmossie Mill, Monifieth

Balmossie Mill is a single and two-storey mill of irregular plan built on falling ground, constructed or substantially rebuilt in the later 18th century and extended westward in the later 19th century. The mill incorporates stone fragments from the ruined chapel of St Andrew, which once stood on the opposite bank of the River Dichty. The building is constructed of random pink and cream sandstone and whinstone rubble, with coursed whinstone at the western extension, and has a grey slate roof with some moulded architraves throughout.

The western elevation comprises a two-bay block on the left with a door on the right flanked by moulded architraves and two frameless windows at first-floor level. Two gables project at the right return, one containing a bricked-up window with various other openings. Evidence of a roof formerly extending over the lade and waterwheel survives from the block at right. The three-bay block to the right has three windows at both ground and first-floor levels, originally with 24 panes but some now missing and boarded.

The southern elevation features a door at the left, a small opening at the right, and a partially blocked window at first-floor centre with moulded architrave, with a piended roof above. The eastern elevation displays a roofless advanced bay at the left with a moulded niche at ground-floor level and a frameless window at first floor, with red brick quoins at the right angle. This bay masks a door with moulded architrave and window at the main elevation. A further bay to the right contains a blocked segmental window with a smaller window above, and another bay at the far right has a partially blocked window.

The northern elevation has paired gables with a door at the left featuring large roughly hewn dressings and a blank gable at the right.

Internally, the mill retains a circular stone-lined kiln, dilapidated remains of a waterwheel and machinery, and ashlar work with roll moulding in the wheel chamber. The kiln is unusual for its circular stone construction and the fact that its form is not expressed externally. The waterwheel construction is also notably unusual.

A mill has occupied this site since at least 1692, when James Pittlock and Alexander Watts of the Mill were mentioned in the Dalhousie Papers in connection with a poaching incident. In 1723, repairs costing £674 were needed, suggesting the mill had been established for a considerable time before then. According to the New Statistical Account and sources from 1884, the mill was rebuilt about a century previously (placing this in the mid-18th century) using stones from the ruined chapel of St Andrew, known as Eglismonichty, a chapel possibly dating from as early as the eighth century. The moulded architraves visible throughout are presumed to have come from this chapel. Ordnance Survey maps from 1857–58 and 1901 show that major additions were made between these dates. The mill has been disused since approximately 1920 and is now ruinous, though it retains considerable amounts of original machinery. The mill has been recorded by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, with full details of the machinery preserved in that record.

Balmossie Mill forms part of a group with the Road Bridge over the Dichty Water, Panmure Bleachfield Cottages and Stable Block, Panmure Bleachfield House/Tenement, and a second Road Bridge over the Dichty Water.