Bothkennar Parish was Crown Land and so the tenants were not thirled to a baronial mill until 1669 when the Barony of Newton was created for William Bruce of Newton. He then set about installing the pertinents of a model barony – a manor house, doocot and mill. In 1670 Robert Kaitter, miller at Newton, witnessed a sasine there. The mill must have been new at that time for when the estate fell to John Wright in 1690 the retour states that the fishing rights in the River Carron and the “new mill and dovecot built by William Bruce of Newtoune” were excluded.
The mill probably stood near to the point that the Newton Pow issued into the River Carron not far to the south of Newton House. Here the tidal rise and fall was considerable and the mill could have operated at low tide. As the pow was only a small stream it is also possible that the mill pond was filled with the rising tide. A map prepared for the Carron Company in 1760 shows a number of buildings in the enclosure to the south of Newton House and these may represent the old mill buildings. The mill does not appear to have operated for long and would have been out of use by that date. In 1783 the course of the river was changed, making it impossible to revive the mill.
Prior to 1669 many of the tenants of the parish would have used mills in the neighbourhood such as that at Pocknave which was only separated from the parish by the mill leat.
Sites and Monuments Record
| Newton Mill | SMR 1232 | NS 915 830 |
Falkirk Local History Society 