Skaithmuir Nether Mill was feued by Carron Company from Thomas Dundas of Fingask and Quarrole in 1763 and was then used as a blacking mill. It stood on the Chapel Burn between Carron and Carronshore. Slowly the name of the mill was changed to the Black Mill and indeed the area around it became known as Blackmill. This was appropriate because it was the first of its kind in the country. The mill made use of the same long lade as Skaithmuir Mill and separate ponds were constructed to serve both mills. A description of the machinery, designed by John Smeaton, is given above in the introduction.
The blacking mill is depicted on the 1859 Ordnance Survey map with a group of buildings to its north which included a public house. The accompanying Name Book describes it as:
“A small mill used by the Carron Coy for the manufacture of blacking; also a few dwellinghouses attached, and all in good repair. Property of the Carron Coy per Wm Dawson Esq, Carron.”
The building was still standing when the 1895 Ordnance Survey map was drawn up but it is shown as disused and the pond had already been infilled. The public house to the north was long called “The Blackmill”, but the name changed to “The Shore” in 2006.
Sites and Monuments Record
| Skaithmuir Nether Mill | SMR 1227 | NS 8883 8301 |
Falkirk Local History Society 