No 206 Water Wheel at Lappin.

The Crofter’s Barn

No 206. The Water Wheel at Lappin, Dunbeath.

The motive power for threshing mills varied, a water wheel was recommended by G.W.Murray in his 1878 Catalogue for his No 2 Tiny mill for crofters where water could be got. Also for his larger mills up to No 6 but size of wheel of course would be as need be. It had the extra value for a crofter in that he did not have to provide a horse to thresh his corn and it gave a steadier drive without tiring and slowing down with hard work. Water was not always available but where it was then a mill dam and a water wheel would be used.
There are still many mill dams around, some at farms, some at meal mills, some still capable of functioning. There are also many mill dams no longer in use except sometimes as a pond for a few Rainbow trout!! Diversification it is called !!
I found an old water wheel at The Lappin, Dunbeath, just west across the road from Laidhay by 200 yards. It was quite spectacular as it had a long cut flag-stone lined mill course built above ground level on an earth and stone bank. Lappin was either a small farm or a croft, we will not quibble over the desciption.
The old dam was far up the land, fed by a ditch draining water from the hill land above. The aqueduct, almost Romanesque in it’s ambition, did its job. A huge amount of work for a crofter to build, the aqueduct at least 300 metres long from the dam. The first 170 metres below the sluice gate is down a ditch, then by the built-up aqueduct for another 130 metres diagonally across a field to the barn side water wheel. To build a similar mill-lead today would be astronomically costly.

The levels of that man-made acqueduct were magic, the sheer hard work needed to build it above ground mind boggling. I am guessing that some of the excavations to quarry the mill dam far up the field were used in part at least to build the raised aqueduct. Most of the mill lades I have seen were dug out to make a small canal, though bridging a final gap in the air is not too unusual. The old mill at Ham and the old mill at Castletown still show where the bridge was to the water wheel. The longest mill lead I know of was from the now drained Loch of Durran below Wester Olrig to the Milltown at Garth, Castletown, more than two miles in length. Now long gone and untraceable. It is shown in an old map of 1778 which I found and is now in Castlehill Heritage Centre.

In the barn beside the feeder platform of the crofter’s mill was a handy wooden lever which went through the wall and by a gate controlled the water to drive the water wheel, or shut it off when need arose to stop the mill. Though I was told the mill was very old it is not as old as originally thought. It is reasonable to think both the threshing mill and the water wheel were made and supplied at the same time by the same millwright. There is no trace of any former horse mill course.

The cast iron work of the water wheel still exists at the back of the barn though the wooden parts are long gone. On the iron side plate of the water wheel is the name B.B.CLYNE, MILLWRIGHT, WICK. There was on old Foundry in West Park in Wick. So a little family research was indicated.




Luck sat on my shoulder. B.B. Clyne was Benjamin Barnetson Clyne, millwright, born 11th Feb. 1866 in Wick.
He lies in Lair M150 in Wick Cemetary, dying 10th May, 1916, aged 50 of Morbus cordis, a heart problem for the curious!!
Inscriptions are
Benjamin Clyne, 10.05.1916 13 McLeay Terrace, WICK.
Christina K. Clyne 20.08.1926 1 Barron’s Well. ( nee Sutherland)

His father was George Clyne, Millwright, died 22.11.1901. aged 70 years. 10 Dempster Street. Lair M143. George’s wife was Ann (Nicolson), who died 25.03.1909.
The lair was owned by William Clyne, farmer, Noss, their eldest son. George’s death was registered by Benjamin B. Clyne, his son.

So we have a father and son as millwrights, working out of Wick from say 1860 to 1916. Benjamin died young at 50 years of age in 1916. The millwrights business passed out of Clyne hands, I think to Meilkejohn and Sutherland, Millwrights, one of whose mills sits preserved in Wick Heritage.

George’s son William took on Noss Farm. And so we link the present day Clynes of Noss with the pioneer millwrights of the later 1800s when farms were being modernised.

The mill and water wheel can now be accurately dated to the latter part of the 1800s, lets settle for 1890 when Benjamin, born 1866, would have been a young man of 24 taking over the Millwright’s business from his aging 65 year old Millwright father George Clyne!!
And, wonderfully preserved in cast iron, Benjamin Barnetson Clyne’s real memorial is still at Lappin in Dunbeath.

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INFO ONLY !!

Death Recorded.

GEORGE CLYNE, 10 DEMPSTER STREET, died 22.11.1901, AGED 70 YEARS
Therefore born circa 1831.

F. WILLIAM CLYNE
M. MARGARET CALDER

REGISTERED BY SON, BENJAMIN CLYNE.

1858. IST NOV. 1858 DEATH.
GEORGE CLYNE, son ALEX, d. 3 Mths.
MILLWRIGHT IN DEMPSTER STREET
LAIRS 143, 144, 145.

CENSUS. 1861
GEORGE CLYNE, MILLWRIGHT, 30 YRS
ANNE (NICOLSON) WIFE, 28 YRS
WM 9, GEORGE 6, JOHN 5, ELIZABETH 1.ALL BORN WICK.



1871 Census Benjamin B. CLYNE in
Piece: SCT1871/43 Place: Wick -Caithness Enumeration District: 8 Wick Burgh Address: 29 Dempster Street

Surname First name(s) Rel Status Sex Age Occupation Where Born Remarks
CLYNE George Head M M 42 Mill Wright Caithness - Wick
CLYNE Annie Wife M F 38 Mill Wright's Wife Caithness - Wick
CLYNE William Son U M 19 Flesher's Assistant Caithness - Wick
CLYNE George Son U M 16 Scholar Caithness - Wick
CLYNE John Son U M 15 Scholar Caithness - Wick
CLYNE Elizabeth Dau U F 11 Scholar Caithness - Wick
CLYNE Benjamin B Son U M 5 - Caithness - Wick
CLYNE David Son U M 3 - Caithness - Wick