Kilmaurs Place - Kilmaurs Barony Mill

Kilmaurs Barony Mill

The mill was demolished in the late 1980s after a large bulge appeared in the outer wall in an area with rough rubble masonry, probably from the earlier mill; it was early 19th century in date and was built by the Earl of Eglinton on an old mill site. It was a large 3-storey and attic, 6-bay rubble building, on a T-plan, with a kiln with roof-ridge ventilator at one end for drying grain. The kiln (was ast used in 1946 and consisted of a firebox burning smokeless anthracite or coke below an inverted flue; the heat was directed up to the perforated cast-iron tiles of the drying floor. The floor collapsed in 1964 whilst the area was being used to store barley and the miller,who was standing on the floor at the time, had to be rescued by the local fire brigade through a hole made in the kiln wall. There was an internal overshot wheel. The mill worked until 1966. In 1985 it was regarded as being probably the last complete example of a lowland Scottish large estate mill.

During the 20th century a turbine, an oil engine, a vertical steam engine, and finally an electric engine were installed in turn; the waterwheel was abandoned. The first-floor loading door had a hinged chute for sliding sacks into lorries.

The millstones were supported on a cast iron cradle and below this were the belt-drives which transferred power from the waterwheel/motors to the stones. Five pairs of millstones were present. The 19th century mill was used initially for grinding oats, and later for crushing peas and beans for use in animal feeds.

Every barony had a thirled mill held by the laird which his tenant farmers had to use, and the nearby Kilmaurs Mill on the Carmel Water dated back to at least the early 17th century as shown by old maps of the area. A mill on the site of old Kilmaurs Mill may therefore have been the one directly associated with the laird at the The Place. An unusual feature of this old mill was a carved stone showing a millstone drive spider or rind (often used on Miller's tombstones as a symbol of the milling trade) on which the upper grindstone rested, a ring of rope, a bill for dressing millstones, and a grain shovel. This stone still survives at the site of the old mill, built into a wall.

Local names such as 'Ladeside' recall the mill. The old lade, much of its course still evident, took its water from the Carmel Water close to the road junction onto the Old Stewarton Road. The remains of the old mill pond dam are still visible (2008), but the pond itself has long been filled in on the site that became a plant nursery at Millholm.