Monument record 9276 - MY132 MINGULAY

MY132 (NL56318332) Mill.
Location: Valley floor.
Description: The Mingulay mill was built to the west of the village by John MacKinnon around 1890 on a stream fed by a number of channels draining the field system in the valley bottom. Constructed with a vertical wheel to drive the shaft on which the millstones were mounted, it closely resembles the mill on Berneray, which MacKinnon not only may have copied but may also have used parts stripped from since it went out of use at this time (Buxton 1995). Although some of the walls are over a metrre thick, the construction is surprisingly flimsy in comparison to the usual solid walled Hebridean buildings, and just during the few years of the survey it has been possible to observe considerable deterioration in the super-structure. The mill is square in plan, 3.9 x 3.7 m, with the wheel housing built a further 1.3 m out over the stream to the south. On the northern side may have been a lean-to shelter either for working or for storage while working. The internal dimensions of the milling room that housed the millstones are 2 m x 1.2 m. These millstones can at present be found half-way to the beach. They were no doubt to be taken aboard one of the many vessels that call in unannounced, but, they being large and heavy, it would appear that the attempt to relieve the island of its portable, saleable objects was abandoned. Ideally, their returen to the mill site to be permanently fixed there would be desireable.
Brannigan and Foster 2000, 106

Keith Branigan & Patrick Foster, 2000, From Barra to Berneray: Archaeological Survey and Excavation in the Southern Isles ... (Bibliographic reference). SWE41033.