Glenbuchat Heritage

74 Site of WaulkMill at Glenkindy

1580 Map of Robert Gordon

Gordon, Robert, 1580-1661
Gordon, James, 1615?-1686

The Waulkmill (Wakmill) must have been convertedfrom a woollen mill to a meal mill by the 18th Century

Note details about Glenbuchat Woollen Mill

WALK-MILL, n. Wauk-mill. A fulling mill.
Fulling or tucking or walking ("waulking" in Scotland) is a step in woollen clothmaking which involves the cleansing of cloth (particularly wool) to eliminate oils, dirt, and other impurities, and making it thicker. The worker who does the job is a fuller, tucker, or walker.[1] The Welsh word for a fulling mill is pandy. This is used in several place-names.
Fulling involves two processes—scouring and milling (thickening). These are followed by stretching the cloth on great frames known as tenters and held onto those frames by tenterhooks. It is from this process that we derive the phrase being on tenterhooks as meaning to be held in suspense. The area where the tenters were erected was known as a tenterground.
Originally, this was literally pounding the cloth with the fuller's feet (whence the description of them as 'walkers'), or hands, or a club. From the medieval period, however, it often was carried out in a water mill.
Fulling mills
From the medieval period, the fulling of cloth often was undertaken in a water mill, known as a fulling mill, a walk mill, or a tuck mill. In Wales, a fulling mill is called a pandy. In these, the cloth was beaten with wooden hammers, known as fulling stocks. Fulling stocks were of two kinds, falling stocks (operating vertically) that were used only for scouring, and driving or hanging stocks. In both cases the machinery was operated by cams on the shaft of a waterwheel or on a tappet wheel, which lifted the hammer.
Driving stocks were pivotted so that the 'foot' (the head of the hammer) struck the cloth almost horizontally. The stock had a tub holding the liquor and cloth. This was somewhat rounded on the side away from the hammer, so that the cloth gradually turned, ensuring that all parts of it were milled evenly. However, the cloth was taken out about every two hours to undo plaits and wrinkles. The 'foot' was approximately triangular in shape, with notches to assist the turning of the cloth.

Details of the Mill at Glenkindie.
Mill of Glenkindie
Site Type WATERMILL
County ABERDEENSHIRE
Parish TOWIE
Council ABERDEENSHIRE
NGR NJ 42876 14495
Latitude, Longitude 57.217623N, 2.947503W

Mill of Glenkindie, from 18th century. Rubble, with a brick-built kiln and a large overshot wheel with segmental gearing which drove the millstones and adjoining sawmill. The mill was rebuilt early this century after a fire.

Taken from "Aberdeenshire: Donside and Strathbogie - An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Ian Shepherd, 2006. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk Archaeological Notes

From The Reids at Rinmore
By now we are near the bottom and on the left hand side is a Mill House. This is the old meal mill. There is still a disused wooden mill wheel to the right and the whole building is generally in very good order. On talking to John Coutts, a Glenkindie inhabitant of some 80 years, whose grandfather was a mason and built many of the houses around Glenkindie, I am informed that the mill was lived in by one Herbert Ellis a joiner and miller, who ground the oatmeal here until recently.