Milepost on Drimnin to Dorlin road, at NM 55242 56335

Milepost on Drimnin to Dorlin road

This is one of seven cast iron mileposts probably erected in or shortly after 1897 along the road between Drimnin and Dorlin in remote western Scotland. The milepost has a fluted column post that splays towards the base. On the front face at the top of the column is an oval makers emblem for the Pioneer Foundry in Blaydon-on-Tyne. The mile marker panels are in the form of two oval faces within a larger sub-oval cap, set on top of the post. Place names and distance numbers are shown in relief. The milepost is unpainted.

The road itself was constructed using money from the Poor Relief Fund, a system that provided support for people unable to support themselves through age or incapacity, including orphans, the sick, disabled and mentally ill. The first act of parliament to provide poor relief was passed in 1424, with subsequent acts in the 15th and 16th centuries primarily addressing beggers and the homeless. After the Reformation (around 1560), responsibility for the poor fell to the parish, jointly through heritors (local landowners) and kirk sessions, a system known as the Old Poor Law. The Poor Law Amendment (Scotland) Act of 1845 established the New Poor Law, directing each parish to administer relief, a system that remained in place until 1929 when the modern welfare state began to expand.

Poor Relief Roads are concentrated in remote areas across the west coast of Scotland. The road here ran from Lochaline to Dorlin, with the first 16 kilometres now forming the B849. In 1847, the section from Bunavullin (1 kilometre southeast of Drimnin) to Killundine River (5 kilometres southeast of Drimnin) was built using Poor Relief Fund money, employing 46 families from Drimnin Estate in construction. Around 1880, the road from Drimnin to Dorlin was completed, also using Poor Relief Fund finance. This section was an upgrade of existing routeways rather than a new creation, as shown by Roy's Highland map (1747-52) depicting several settlements along the general line of the current road, with Arrowsmith's map (1807) and the First Edition Ordnance Survey map (1872) showing a routeway or simple track between the two settlements.

In 1897 or probably soon after, eight mileposts were erected along the route, of which seven survive today. The County Council briefly adopted the road in 1897 and may have been responsible for erecting the mileposts. They are cast iron, made by Pioneer Foundry in Blaydon-on-Tyne, the same style and casting as used on the Isle of Mull and found also on the isles of Seil and Luing, in Ardnamurchan, and in Berwickshire and west Fife.