Monument record MHG39879 - Railway, Dunrobin Saw Mill

A 'Saw Mill' is depicted on the current edition OS map.
J Aitken: 14/09/04

A sawmill was established by the Duke of Sutherland in the 1860s which not only met the substantial needs of the estate but also supplied the thousands of sleepers for his railway to Helmsdale.

Located adjacent to the nursery which the produced the thousands of seedlings necessary for the Duke's vaste planting schemes (which at their height are stated to have exceeded 4500 acres and produced 40,000 cubic feet of timber per year) the sawmill still operates to this day, remaining the property of Sutherland Estates.

A narrow guage hand-worked railway was installed to assist in operations at an early date, a short remnant (18 metres) of which remains in use serving the pressure treatment plant. Originally the line linked this plant with a timber preparation and storage shed, as well as a roadside unloading point.
Extracts from 'Railways in Sutherland' by Wilfrid Simms