Plash Mill

Plash Mill cottage

  

Little is known about Plash Mill. Sometime before 1797[1] a waulkmill was built beside New Mill. A waulkmill or fulling mill was used to clean and thicken cloth.[2] Many of these mills in Scotland were known as plash mills,[3][4] a short form of “splash”, presumably as a result of the watery process of fulling.[5]  

Plash Mill Cottage is still inhabited and displays the inscribed date of 1658 on the gable end. It is a Category C listed building.[6] Historic Scotland suggest that this end of the cottage (with the lower roof) was the mill itself.[6] Whether this building was Plash Mill, New Mill or both (as suggested by Historic Scotland) is unclear. However, the Ordnance Survey map of 1855 (only 11 years before milling stopped at New Mill[1]) clearly names the building as New Mill.[7]

Gallery

References

  1. R N Smart; “Notes on the Water Mills of St Andrews” (1989) in “Three Decades of Historical Notes” (ed. M Innes & J Whelan, 1991)
  2. “Fulling” online at Wikipedia
  3. “Site record for Kirkcaldy, West Bridge, Plash Mill” online at RCAHMS
  4. “The Mills” online at Discover Blairgowrie
  5. “Plash” online at Dictionary of the Scots Language
  6. “Plash Mill Cottage” online at Historic Environment Scotland
  7. Ordnance Survey; 6″ series maps New Mill (1855) online at National Library of Scotland

Mapping