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Fife Ness, Tide Mill

Tide Mill (Post Medieval)

Site Name Fife Ness, Tide Mill

Classification Tide Mill (Post Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Kingscavin Mill

Canmore ID 35359

Site Number NO60NW 9

NGR NO 6366 0986

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/35359

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Fife
  • Parish Crail
  • Former Region Fife
  • Former District North East Fife
  • Former County Fife

Archaeology Notes

NO60NW 9 6366 0986

Location formerly cited as NO 636 099.

See also NO60NW 33.00 and NO60NW 33.01 .

For limekiln at NO 63652 09871, see NO60NW 368.

INFORMATION TAKEN FROM THE ARCHITECTURE CATALOGUE:

Information from Prof. Minchinton (Exeter University): he understands there is a reference to tide mill in OSA entry on CRAIL IX 439 'Kingscavin Mill'. Could this be AG's Fife Ness Tidemill.

(Undated) information in NMRS.

'Near Fife Ness are the remains of a tide-mill, just to the west of Fife Ness Harbour.' [NO60NW 33.00].

Information from J K R Murray letter, 29 January 1961.

NO 6367 0985. The remains of the mill consist of a circular groove, 0.3m wide by 0.15m deep, with a diameter of 4.0m cut in the flat natural rock. A pivot-hole, 0.7m in diameter, is cut in the centre of the stone. There are other indefinite traces of cuttings in the rocks nearby.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 27 August 1968

Ainslie's map simply shows 'mill' applied to a small open circle in association with four buildings. Comparison of the circular groove with the 19th century whin-crushing mills of Aberdeenshire (J Ritchie 1925) suggests that this may have been a similar mill, perhaps for the crushing of lime (the OS 25" 1914 shows an "Old Kiln" nearby).

From its position on the sea-shore it could not have been a tide-mill.

J Ainslie 1775; OS 25" map (1914)

A reappraisal of the area by RCAHMS survey has shown that the circular groove described by the OS refers to the remains of the lighthouse construction site (see NO60NW 33.01). The remains of the tide mill lie at NO 636 099. The kiln is depicted on the 1st ed OS (Fife and Kinross 20, published 1855) as an 'Old Kiln'.

Information from RCAHMS (RHM) 14 March 1994.

Site recorded by Maritime Fife during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, Fife Ness to Newburgh 1996

Activities

Ground Survey (1 June 2011 - 30 September 2011)

NO 6366 0986 A rectified vertical photographic survey by aerial drone was made, between 1 June–30 September 2011, of features associated with the tide mill near Fife Ness, where a natural basin has been enhanced by the construction of stone-built barrages on either side of a rock outcrop to create a reservoir some 100 x 70m in extent when filled by the incoming tide. A channel cut through the central outcrop acted as a mill race, with slots to accommodate a mill-wheel (presumably retractable) and associated structures. The footings of the southern barrage indicate a cohesive single-phase structure, straight-built with squared facings set lengthwise and a rubble fill, while the longer northern barrage is curvilinear and much less regular, with edge-set facings and evidence of multiple phasing.

Stone foundations and rock cutting just beyond the southern end of the S barrage indicate the presence of a building. Local information in 1968 suggested that the footings were those of a two-storey structure.

The OSA for Crail (1790-91) notes that of the two corn mills then functioning in the parish ‘one … is turned by salt water, admitted during flood tide into a reservoir, and discharged upon a wheel after the tide has ebbed’. No subsequent reference to it has been found, and it may be presumed to have ceased operating early in the 19th century. The multiple phasing and vernacular character of the northern barrier suggests that the system may have functioned from a considerably earlier date, with the rebuilding of the southern barrier representing a final phase.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Morvern Maritime Centre and Edward Martin Photography, 2011

References

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