North Mill with stable, water wheel and threshing machine, Scalan, Braes of Glenlivet

North Mill with stable, water wheel and threshing machine, Scalan, Braes of Glenlivet

Building type, date and context

This is a late 19th century, two-storey, L-plan mill building situated in a remote highland upper moorland valley in the Braes of Glenlivet, within Cairngorms National Park. It forms part of a small, informally arranged group of farm buildings at Scalan, set alongside the Former Roman Catholic Seminary (a separate category A listed building) and the South Mill. Together these buildings trace the historical, social and agricultural development of Scalan from the 18th century to the early 20th century. The surrounding valley setting has changed little since the early 20th century.

Exterior

The building is constructed in rubble with harl pointing and roofed in Tomintoul slates, materials local to the area. The two-bay east wing serves as a stable. At the centre of the west elevation, a timber water wheel is housed within a lean-to structure. The south gable has a wide, square-headed opening fitted with a pair of timber doors. The north gable has a pair of square-headed cart bays with a loft entrance above; the left-hand cart bay entrance is partially blocked and has a door. The corners of the east gable retain fragments of projecting stones known as tusker stones, which indicate that this wing has been shortened at some point, meaning the plan form of the mill has changed during its history.

Plan form

The layout of the building has been arranged specifically to accommodate the threshing machine and the threshing process. The south entrance sits at a higher level because the threshing machine is set in a pit, positioned at a height that allows its gearing to match the water wheel. The building incorporates separate areas for the separation of corn, chaff and straw. The threshing machine is positioned in the west part of the building, adjacent to the water wheel. The water wheel needed to be close to the Crombie Water — a stream approximately 70 metres to the west of the seminary — so that water could be supplied to the mill lade, and this requirement is likely to have determined the approximate north-to-south orientation of the mill.

Interior

The interior was inspected in 2016. The threshing barn is dominated by a largely complete, late 18th or early 19th century timber threshing machine, which remains in situ in the west part of the building and is connected to the mill wheel. The machine follows the designs and details developed by Andrew Meikle around 1786 and is constructed in wood. It has been encased in a timber chassis with access points to feed in the crop and to take out the separated chaff, grain and straw. Removable panels fitted with round peep holes allow access to the machinery for repair. According to Addison's 2015 conservation report, the upper part of the thresher is contained in a cased timber chassis supported on large timber beams built into the masonry walls in an integrated manner; the upper threshing floor joists are dovetailed into the principals in the traditional way, and the entire assembly is described as elegantly designed, with some visual embellishments.

The threshing machine lacks the sophistication of grain elevators and double or triple grain cleaning processes seen in threshing machine drawings from 1840 onwards, which suggests its early origins. Although the angle of the iron skutchers on the beater drum is of a kind known to have been introduced around 1830, these could represent subsequent modifications to an earlier machine. The equipment follows closely from drawings of Meikle's threshing mill and incorporates adjustable iron roller and grain grippers, a wooden drum beater, wooden shaker and wooden fanner, all powered from the water wheel via very efficient iron drive wheels.

There is extensive historic graffiti on the interior timberwork throughout the building. This ranges from names and dates to pictures of animals and comments on the harvest. The earliest graffiti date is 1874. This material is of historical interest as evidence of the social history of the building and farm.

The stable in the east wing retains timber stalls with some troughs.

The water wheel

The water wheel is a breastshot, start-and-awe type. In this design, the term start refers to a piece of wood secured in the rim of the wheel and projecting outward, onto which the awe — the wooden float or paddle — is attached at an angle of 40 to 45 degrees. The launder fed water directly onto the floats or paddles at the mid-point of the wheel, turning the wheel in a clockwise direction. For its late 19th century date the wheel is remarkably complete, with many of the timber paddles still present. The starts supporting the floats or paddles are longer on the North Mill than on the South Mill at Scalan, indicating that greater power was required to operate the threshing machine in this building.

Age and dating

The precise construction date of the North Mill building is not known. The North Mill does not appear on the first edition Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1869, on which the seminary is shown with a number of small outbuildings and a pair of rectangular-plan buildings on the opposite side of the Crombie Water, but no mill on the present site. The North Mill first appears on the second edition Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1900. The earliest graffiti date of 1874 on the interior timberwork suggests the mill was constructed between 1869 and 1874. A previous listed building record written in 1972 dated both the North and South Mill buildings to the early 19th century, possibly incorporating earlier fabric, but this is not supported by the mapping evidence.

The threshing machine itself is believed by Addison to date from between 1776 — when Andrew Meikle invented the threshing machine — and the early 19th century, with the mill building constructed later specifically to house it.

Historical context

Scalan has profound significance in Scottish Catholic history. Roman Catholicism was outlawed following the Scottish Reformation in 1560 and its practice was theoretically punishable by deportation. From 1716 to 1799 a Roman Catholic seminary operated at Scalan, founded by Bishop James Gordon. The Braes of Glenlivet were sufficiently isolated and remote in the 18th century to shelter Catholics, and the seminary trained around 100 Catholic priests during its existence. It also served as an administrative centre for the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. The seminary building was constructed in 1767 and is separately listed at category A. Farming at the seminary was essential to the community's survival during the period of persecution and constant harassment. Roy's Military Survey of 1747 to 1752 depicts rig and furrow cultivation patterns around Scalan, confirming that farming took place. Seminary records suggest that meal was imported to Scalan, but Addison considers it possible that some later threshing was carried out on site and that the early threshing machine was already in use both for the community's survival and for sharing essential cereal foods with the wider area.

Scalan was closed by the Catholic Church in 1799 when the repeal of the Penal Laws made it possible to establish a larger and more visible seminary. The seminary transferred to Aquhorthies near Inverurie in 1799 and subsequently to Blairs College near Aberdeen in 1829; it is recorded that the priests took their farming skills with them to both locations. After the priests departed in 1799, the seminary became a farmhouse, and it is likely that the farm and mill buildings at the site developed following this date. The Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1867 to 1869 describes Scalan as a commodious dwelling house with some cottar houses, offices, garden and farm attached, the property of the Duke of Richmond, noting that the place had been a popish seminary some seventy years previously but was by then converted into a farm steading.

Andrew Meikle's threshing machine revolutionised farming, marking the beginning of an industrial phase in agriculture that peaked in large-scale technological development by 1830. It caused a fundamental change in farm design by reducing the need for large threshing barns; farm building layouts became more formal, typically arranged around a courtyard. In Morayshire, however, the informal arrangement of farms survived into the early 19th century, and by 1811 threshing machines were found in only 15% of farms in most parishes. The informal arrangement of the farm buildings at Scalan is therefore typical of pre-industrialised 19th century farm steadings in Morayshire, which retained traditional layouts longer than other parts of Scotland.

The New Statistical Account records limestone being quarried and used for agricultural purposes, and notes that lime kilns were found on almost every farm, fuelled by peat. A lime kiln at Scalan is marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey map. The remote location of Scalan would have made it difficult and expensive to transport building stone from elsewhere, so it is likely that locally sourced limestone was used in the construction and repair of the buildings.

Significance

The North Mill and its threshing machine are extremely rare as one of the oldest surviving in situ threshing machines in Scotland. Farm buildings are not uncommon across Scotland, but those that survive with early farming machinery largely intact are very rare. The mill building is significant because it was designed specifically to accommodate this early and substantially complete threshing machine, and has not been significantly altered since its construction. Together the building and its threshing machine represent an important surviving example of the industrialisation of farming practices in Scotland. As part of the wider Scalan group, the North Mill is also an important component of a remote complex of buildings that, together with the Former Roman Catholic Seminary and the South Mill, documents the historical, social and agricultural development of Scalan from the 18th century to the early 20th century.