Building record MHG8758 - Warehouse - High Street, Invergordon

C19-C20 bone mill and bone works, taken over by the Admiralty in WWI and used as a machine shop, stores and workshops. Most latterly used as warehousing. Only part of the former complex survives (2015).

(Location cited as NH 710 686). Warehouse, Invergordon, early 19th century. A two-storey six-bay rubble building, with a bay of single-storey stores at the rear. <1>

The building was part of the Royal Navy Dockyard (see NH76NW 64.00) and was the machine shop.
Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 2 August 2013

The site was investigated in 2015 as part of the ARCH project 'Invergordon in World War I'. On the 1st edition map this complex is called the Bone Mill and on the 2nd edition the Bone Works. Already by the 1st edition map (surveyed 1872) there is a railway line running through the complex which is comprised of two buildings, and by the time of the 2nd edition map (surveyed 1902), the railway line is contained within one large building. The building was taken over in WWI by the Admiralty. The building to the north of the railway became the Machine Shop, while to the south it became N.S.O. Stores to the west, and a cluster of small workshops including the E.E.'s shop, the C.E.'s pattern shop, the hydraulic pump house, and a compressor house, with a cloakroom added to the southeast. Aerial photos from WWI and 1930 show that the Machine shop was formed of three or four large bays running north-south. Immediately to their south were two bays running east-west, one in line with the old girnal to the west and one covering the railway. To the south of these, where the N.S.O. Stores and cluster of workshops were situated, there were five or six narrower bays running north-south. A WWII plan in private collection suggests that the machine shop and N.S.O Stores were not taken over by the Admiralty, presumably remaining in use by the Highland Agricultural Co., but that the eastern cluster of workshops was. The 1947 aerial photo shows the Machine Shop area as comprising four bays, the western one slightly larger. The two east-west bays behind the shop are visible. An aerial photo from the 1960s in the possession of Invergordon Museum shows the area of the N.S.O. Stores and workshops now with three bays running north-south, and a cluster of buildings, presumably the workshops, to the east. Three of the bays from the Machine shop survive, although two have been damaged by fire. The best preserved is the western bay of the Machine shop. Part of the stone-built bay running east-west below the Machine shop also survives. Aerial photos from 1978 show that the buildings which had formed the N.S.O. stores had been demolished by this date. <1>

At least three versions of a WWI Naval plan survive, two in private collection which probably date to wartime, and one in the National Archives (MPI 1/641/4) which dates to 1921. On all three the buildings taken over or built by the Navy are shaded, but there are a few discrepancies between the plans. One of the plans in private collection has enlarged details, but only shows the Admiralty buildings and not others in the town. Valuation Rolls also indicate some buildings not shaded on our plans were taken over by the military. It is clear from contemporary photographs that the army built additional buildings, particularly north of Cromlet Drive. <2>