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MHG35953 - WATER WHEEL HOUSE - BALNAKEIL

Summary

The underhouse of a vertical undershot mill with two alternate wheels.

Type and Period (1)

Protected Status

Full Description

See also NC36SE 51.

By Balnakeil House (NC36NE 4) is a detached wheel-pit for a wheel about 54ins (1.37M) wide by 10ft (3.1m) diameter, which powered a rope drive to the steading on the hillside above.
J R Hume 1977.

A rapid coastal zone assessment survey was conducted by GUARD in the Autumn of 1997 commissioned by Historic Scotland from the Viking and Early Settlement Archaeological Research Project based at the University of Glasgow.

A mortared stone building with twin compartments located NW of Balnakeil House and approximately .10 m from the head of the beach, on the east side of the burn from Loch Croispol. The N compartment measures 5 m E-W by .1.4 m and is adjoined to the south compartment which measures 5.2 m E-W by 2.48 m. The base of these compartments are below ground level and the interior walls have a number of iron fittings in situ. This is clearly the underhouse of a vertical undershot mill with two alternate wheels as noted by Hume (ibid) and which powered a rope drive to the steading on the hillside above. This served to run threshing-machines and other mechanical farming-equipment to the earliest improved farm-buildings in the NW of Scotland and is the only known detached wheel-house of its type in the Highlands (Beaton, 1995, 96). <1>

NGR adjusted based on 2020 vertical aerial photographs. <2>

Sources/Archives (2)

Map

Location

Grid reference	Centred NC 3919 6866 (8m by 7m) (2 map features)
Map sheet	NC36NE
Geographical Area	SUTHERLAND
Civil Parish	DURNESS

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