Mill of Eyreland

The Mill of Eyrland
Orkney
The Mill of Eyrland
Type:	Watermill
Location
Grid reference:	HY29470972
Location:	58°58’8"N, 3°13’42"W
History
	Built 1861-2
	Watermill
Information
Condition:	Converted to B&B accommodation
Website:	millofeyrland.com

The Mill of Eyreland, otherwise known as the 'Mill of Ireland' (or indeed 'Ayreland') is a historic watermill on the Mainland of Orkney, in the area in the south of the island known as 'Ireland'. The mill is no longer grinding grain but provides bed and breakfast accommodation.

The mill in its day was driven by the water of the Burn of Ayreland, or Burn of Burralie, a north-westerly flowing coastal stream that empties into the Clestrain Sound approximately three miles south of Stenness.

Prehistory and history

This watermill is located several miles south of important Neolithic and Iron Age archaeological sites. Several miles to the north are the Standing Stones of Stenness and the Ring of Brodgar. About three miles to the north-east is the vast Iron Age tumulus known as Maes Howe.

The Burn of Eyreland supplied power to a mill in this location from the Late Middle Ages, though the mill standing today is Victorian.

Burn of Eyreland at the Mill

The Mill of Eyrland as it stands today was built in 1861-2 by the Balfour Estate, on a site where a mill had stood since the 1500's. The Balfours were large landowners throughout Orkney and the mill was built to service their tenant farmers of the parish of Stenness and surrounding area. However, smaller landowners in the area, even as far afield as the islands of Hoy and Graemsay, would also bring their grain to be milled.

The mill worked for just over a century, housing and employing four millers over that time. The main crop milled here was bere, the rough barley of Orkney from which the local bannocks are baked to this day.

The name of the first miller is recorded carved into the timber of the mill: "James Dallas Miller, December 1st 1862 from the mills of Arbuthnott, Kincardineshire". The last miller, James Linklater (known locally as "Jimmick") worked here until his retirement in the mid 1960s, at which point the mill ceased to operate.

The mill then fell into disrepair until Ian and Margo Heddle bought the building. Over a period of twenty years they restored the workings, which remain intact, and the living quarters.

Outside links

("Wikimedia Commons" has material about Mill of Eyreland)

• The Mill of Eyrland
• Map: HY29470972
• Location map: 58°58’8"N, 3°13’39"W