Heatherslaw Cornmill

A restored and working 19th century water powered corn mill. Visit and view the wooden water mill which drives the gears that turn the grind stones. The cafe sells cakes and bread made using the flour ground here.
Adults £4 (Dec 2022) open 10:00 - 16:00 every day.

Harnessing the power of moving water to drive a mill wheel is an ancient invention of human discovery, whose origins can be traced back to ancient times. Thanks to such a design, a watercourse – natural or artificial – made it possible to simply replace human or animal muscle power with the power of natural elements, for example, to grind grain into corn or press oil from fruit.There are essentially two drive variants for watermills:
* Either the flowing water simply hits the blades of the water wheel from below to set it in motion; or
* the water is guided above the wheel – usually through a so-called "mill channel" – and falls onto the blades. This design, thanks to natural gravity, ensures greater efficiency.