Sites and Monument Record: Lower Garvald Mill (SMR 485)

Description
This large complex lies c40 m downstream from Upper Garvald Mill. The remains of the weir can be seen as a series of iron rods embedded in the natural rock at a point where the valley narrows considerably. From thence a tall stone-lined lade leads to the mill.
A well engineered road leads from the west end of Fankerton to the mill. As it crossed the Garvald Burn it passed at a high level over a single arch bridge (NS 7859 8325).

Object detail

Site type
building
mill; water
Site history notes
Garvald was for several generations a small estate possessed by a branch of the Bruces of Airth. However, it is John Forrester "of Garvelmylne" who held the tenure of the mill in 1653 when it is first noted. John Brown, the miller at "Garvald Miln" acted as attorney for Rebecca Bruce, the widow of Hugh Forsyth of Garvald, when the estate reverted to her. By 1803 there were two mills and both the Upper and Lower mills were described as "Char Mills".
Shortly afterwards one of them became a paper mill. William Smail, paper maker in Denny, owned Garvald Mill in 1806 and by 1822 it had passed to Thomas Burns and John Muirhead, at which time it was damaged by fire. When Burns died in 1826 Muirhead was joined in the venture by Rev John Burns of Morningside. It was he who advertised the mill for sale in 1836. By the following year it was still being operated as a paper mill by Alexander Jack. By 1841 it had reverted back to a charcoal mill and the minister reported that "The uppermost are Garvald mills, there are two of them, and both are employed in grinding charcoal for moulders, & c. Each mill has a miller at £2 per week of wages and a man, horse, and cart, to bring charcoal to the mills, and to carry the ground produce to the moulders. The carters have each 12s per week." One of the mills was converted to a dyewood mill by a chemist called Michael Benny between 1855 and 1861. It had become a grain mill by 1881.
The 1st ed OS shows the Upper mill as a dyewood mill and the Lower one as Char Mill.
A mill was still being valued here for the minister's stipend in 1906.
Site grid ref
NS 7855 8341

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