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Summary

Description

Late 18th century. 2-bay, rectangular-plan, piended-roof wheelhouse over mill lade and associated timber turbine house to E side. Whinstone rubble walls with rough hewn quoins; segmental-arched openings for lade and tail-race. Door opening to E and small former gearing openings to W to former open-sided timber sawmill sheds (now demolished). Remnant wall extending to W.

WHEEL: 14ft diameter, 7ft wide iron water wheel with 3 sets of 8 T-section spokes with tie rods. Wood buckets, pierced drum boards, spur gearing. Remains of timber sluice.

TURBINE HOUSE: Small horizontal timber-boarded shed with corrugated iron roof. Door to S; 6-pane window to N. Vertical turbine by Hogg and Robertson powered 110-volt electric generator.

Statement of Special Interest

The wheelhouse and turbine house are the important surviving elements of the former Meikle's Sawmill; the open sided timer sawmill sheds have been demolished. Meikle's sawmill was part of the early development of the industrial part of Innerleithen, powered by the mill lade off the Leithen water which also supplied the Hogg and Robertson Engineering works, Caerlee Mill and Robert Smail's Printing works.

The Wheel itself is a large example of its type and owes more to textile mill technology than to the narrow wheels more commonly used in grain mills. The turbine, built and maintained by Hogg and Robertson Engineers who were on the adjacent site, supplied the first electricity supply in Innerleithen, to the sawmill, millwright's, saw millers house and the Town Hall.

The mill was formerly part of the Traquair Estate.

The wheelhouse and turbine are now in the garden of a bungalow built on the site of the timber sawmill sheds.

List description revised and category changed from B to C(S) 2008.

References

Bibliography

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