Milepost on Drimnin to Dorlin road, at NM 60758 58503

Milepost on Drimnin to Dorlin Road

This cast iron milepost is one of seven surviving examples probably erected in or shortly after 1897 along the Drimnin to Dorlin road. The post features a fluted column that splays towards the base. At the top of the column on the front face is an oval makers emblem for the Pioneer Foundry in Blaydon-on-Tyne. The mile marker consists of two oval faces within a larger sub-oval cap, set on top of the post, with place names and distance numbers in relief. The milepost remains unpainted.

These mileposts were erected following the completion of the road itself, which was built around 1880 using Poor Relief Fund money. Poor Relief Roads were constructed to provide employment for those receiving poor relief, including orphans, the sick, disabled, and mentally ill. The responsibility for poor relief in Scotland fell on the parish after the Reformation, administered jointly through local landowners and kirk sessions under the 'Old Poor Law'. Following the Poor Law Amendment (Scotland) Act of 1845, the 'New Poor Law' directed each parish to administer relief independently until the modern welfare state began to expand in 1929.

The road from Drimnin to Dorlin was an upgrade of an existing route rather than a new creation. Roy's Highland map of 1747 to 1752 shows several settlements along the general line of the current road, with routeways or simple tracks depicted on Arrowsmith's map of 1807 and the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1872. The section was essentially upgraded by the Poor Relief Fund across its 11-kilometre length. The County Council briefly adopted the road in 1897 and may have been responsible for erecting the mileposts.

The mileposts were manufactured by Pioneer Foundry, the same style and casting used on the Isle of Mull and found elsewhere including the isles of Seil and Luing, Ardnamurchan, Berwickshire, and west Fife. Of the eight mileposts originally erected, seven survive today.