Description

The monument comprises the remains of a small industrial village, centred on a late 18th-century lint mill, whose economy was based on flax production. The monument was first scheduled in 1973, but is being re-scheduled now in order to clarify the boundary of the scheduled area and to exclude an occupied modern building.

The monument lies in pasture land at approximately 200m OD on a S-facing hillside on the E side of the Invervar Burn. Invervar is first depicted on Roy's map in the mid 18th century as a small settlement N of the B846 road and E of Invervar Burn. The lint mill is first depicted on James Stobie's map of 1783, which shows the mill and a small village comprising six buildings. The lint mill was built by Ewan Cameron, who was responsible for the construction of some eighty mills in the Highlands. The mill is likely to have gone out of use during the first half of the 19th century. At the time of the First Edition Ordnance Survey in 1862, the village comprised one unroofed and nine roofed buildings (one annotated as a smithy), four enclosures and a field.

The lint mill is a circular two-storey rubble building with a conical roof. Sited near the centre of the village, it is 6m in diameter with walls 0.6m thick and stands 4m high. The lint mill was restored in the 1980s. At first floor level the walls are pierced by a door, three windows and a square opening; and at ground floor level by a door, one window and an opening out to a water wheel on the W of the building. The water wheel was sited on stone foundations within a rectangular pit, 0.6m wide and 3.8m long. The well-defined mill lade (now dry) runs some 19m from Invervar Burn to the mill, and is 0.6m wide at its base and up to 1.1m deep, with a slight bank along the E side.

A track c.1.8m wide runs northwards through the scheduled area over a distance of some 160m. It is cut into the ground in places and one section is lined with boulders along the E side. Another short length of track leads up to the lint mill from the E, cut into the S side of the hill slope. A substantial stone dyke, standing 1.4m high and 0.9m wide at its base, lies N of the lint mill and runs E-W crossing the track. A 0.6m wide culvert is built into the base of the dyke where it crosses the mill lade.

The remains of a small building, 2m by 3.5m internally, lie about 10m SW of the lint mill. This structure was sunk into the E side of a low ridge, with a stony bank to the E and S. A gap in the E wall may indicate the position of an entrance.

A stone dyke and two associated enclosures lie in the S half of the scheduled area. The first enclosure, 5m by 26m, is U-shaped and defined by stony banks 1m wide by 0.3m high. Its wall is incorporated into the N wall of a later, larger enclosure to the S. This latter measures 14m by 26m and is defined by substantial dry-stone walls 1.6m high, with an entrance in the NW corner. The stone dyke runs N-S over a distance of some 110m in the S half of the scheduled area, surviving partly as a stony bank and partly as a line of boulders.

Two rectangular buildings are incorporated into the line of the dyke. The first is aligned E-W and measures 5.5m by 13m (maximum). Its walls, 1m wide and standing up to 1m high, are built from massive boulders. A robbed-out 4m wide gap in the S wall might indicate the entrance. The building is sub-divided into two rooms: a larger one to the W, measuring 3m by 6m internally; and a smaller room to the E, 3m by 4m. The building is incorporated into the stone dyke, with dykes running up to its SE, NW and SW corners. The second building, aligned NW-SE and defined by stone walls up to 1.3m high, is similar in size, character and layout to the first building. An entrance is indicated in the centre of the NE wall. This building is incorporated into the S side of the stone dyke.

One other probable structure occurs in the S of the scheduled area. This small, sunken rectangular feature, 2.4m by 3m internally, is defined by a 0.5m deep cut into the ground on three sides, with large boulders along the edges, and a low stony bank, 0.7m wide by 0.2m high to the NE.

The area proposed for scheduling comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material may be expected to survive. It is sub-rectangular in shape and measures approximately 164m SSW-NNE by 145m NNW-SSE, as marked in red on the accompanying map.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance because of its potential to contribute to an understanding of small-scale industrial settlement and economy in a rural setting in post-medieval Scotland.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

The monument is recorded by RCAHMS as NN64NE 8.

References:

Dalland M and Baker L 2000, SURVEY: INVERVAR, GLEN LYON, PERTHSHIRE, Unpublished report for Historic Scotland, Edinburgh: Headland Archaeology.

Hume J R 1977, THE INDUSTRIAL ARCHAEOLOGY OF SCOTLAND: 2 THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS, London.

Maps:

Roy W 1747-55, MILITARY SURVEY OF SCOTLAND, Sheet 16/4.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland