We are creating the skeleton of this wiki for the community, near and far, to work together to develop an encyclopedia of the natural and social history of Ardchattan.
Please bear with us as we develop this site, and please join in to contribute any images and information you have on any location or topic.
The industrial corn mills were an essential part of our agriculture between the 1750 and 1900's.
The Blaeu map has the Barravullin area marked as Barvulyin - a place of milling back in the 1600s
So far we have identified corn mills at
Rhugarbh (Barcaldine Mill)
Baravullin (Kintaline Mill for Lochnell estate) - this is a place of milling for many hundreds of years, it is Barwoulyn in the 1650s Blaeu map.
Inveresregan / Blarcreen (a Mill Croft in 1891 Census - Ardchattan Mill)
What about Inverawe ?
And what about any in Glen Etive ? less likely as
Appin has a mill at Invernahyle just over the other side of Loch Creran
are these Grist Mills ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gristmill
Waulking mills are not so well recorded in Scotland
From the NRS records it is clear that Achacha was a waulking mill - where woven material would have been processed into fabric. It seems it may have finished operations in late 1790s. A Mr McNab moved to Achosrigan Portnacroish where another waulking mill was established.
1787- 1791 - Waulking mill working at Achacha - John McNab
GD170 Papers of the Campbell Family of Barcaldine 1539-1961
Country code GB
Repository code 234
Repository National Records of Scotland
Reference GD170/484
Title Mills
Dates 1787-1796
Access status Open
Location On site
Description 1. Waulkmilne at Achacha. 1787-91. [11 documents.] // a cloth-fulling mill //
1792
Baptism Archibald McNab, son of John McNab and Mary McLaren - who 2 years later are at Waulk Mill. Achosregan,by Portnacriosh. so John was likely running the Waulk mill here until its ?closure? .. was that why he moved to Appin? .
It looks like one Waulking mill closed and he was moved to the next
GD170 Papers of the Campbell Family of Barcaldine 1539-1961
Country code GB
Repository code 234
Repository National Records of Scotland
Reference GD170/1950
Title Letter from John McNab to Alexander Campbell of Barcaldine, advocate.
Dates 1791-1795
Access status Open
Location On site
Description Agrees to take waulkmill, 1791. Dated at Achasragan, Waulkmill, etc.
Level File
Extent 3 letters
Connel post office and shop, on the other side of Loch Etive, is the site of a significant cardingmill.
And Oban had an established tweed mill until relatively recent times.
there was also the cardingmill . at Cardingmill bay along the shores south of the "modern" town.
Mills mapped in Scotland - this project is a fabulous one to look at the distribution of mills
https://maps.nls.uk/projects/mills/index.html#zoom=12&lat=56.4976&lon=-5.3572
Are there any others ?
