Monument record MHG12263 - Mill, Gleann Leireag

NC13SE 8 1555 3098.

Unannotated roofless structure. OS 6"map, (1967)

Beside Abhainn Gleann Leireag is a ruined mill measuring 7m by 4m with walls 1m thick and 2m maximum height. A near-circular chamber in floor of building, 1.6 m in diameter, indicates position of the wheel, and top of a millstone protrudes through debris within the structure. The short lade is now dry. This may be the Mill of Glenlirag noted in Home's Survey of Assynt (see NC13SW ).
Visited by OS (N K B) 19 August 1980.

A ruinous stone mill, constructed of uneven rubble with both gathered and quarried blocks is situated on the north banks of the river Abhainn Gleann Leireag. The lade/leit appears is filled in but can be traced to the east and runs through the S end of the building. The building itself measures 6.7m by 4.9m and is aligned N/S, standing to up 1.7m in the S; the N wall appears to have been poorly built and is bowing. The ground in the wheel pit is 1.15m below the rubble infill. Two large fragments of the mill stone are visible amongst the rubble. <1>

Surveyed in detail by the Assynt's Hidden Lives project.
The Glenleraig mill, located on the N bank of Abhainn Gleann Leireag sits on ground which slopes steeply to the N, over a now rubble-clogged lade. The mill is of dry stone construction, apparently mostly of gathered stone although some of the facing stones appear to have been roughly worked. The N and S walls survive to the greatest height, standing to almost 2m in places in irregular courses. The structure was entered from the E, upstream side through a doorway 0.65m wide. In the interior, the floor is levelled into the slope and at least two steps survive leading down into the wheel pit, which is 1.60m wide, 1.10m deep from the floor and spans the width of the building. The walls of the mill run over the lade/wheel pit on the E side, but have collapsed at the corresponding point on the W. Two fragments of a sandstone millstone are visible among the rubble of the wheelpit.
The lade is 21.5m in length, and 2.0m wide at its maximum; gathered stone revetting walls are just visible in places on the N and S sides; there are traces upstream of walling intended to divert the stream into the lade. <2>