Modern watermill and associated water management.


The Ordnance Survey 1:2500 First Edition mapping of 1869 shows a building at the grid reference provided, together with the annotation 'T Mill', denoting a threshing mill. The mill is associated with the small farmstead of Ballacain.


Water for the threshing mill was primarily drawn off the Ballaugh stream along a short 20m leat; a longer 90m tail race returned to the watercourse downstream.


This water supply was presumably inadequate in the summer or during times of heavy use, as extensive arrangements to provide additional power are also shown on the OS mapping. Upstream of the farm, a weir led off water along a second leat, some 70m in length, to a 0.2 acre millpond excavated on the other side of the stream from the farm. Water from the pond must have been fed into the primary leat when required, perhaps by a temporary wooden trough.


The site of the mill is now occupied by a range of more recent agricultural buildings, and the leats and millpond have been infilled. Parts of the tail race are still evident.