Description

The monument comprises the abandoned farmstead of Parktown, including its mill and lade, which is of post-Improvement date.

The monument is sited on a steep SW-facing hillside at about 260-280m OD, above Ballinloan Burn, some 650m N of Ballinloan. The farmstead comprises five ruined buildings, clustered around a group of enclosures, together with a mill, a lade and a mill pond.

The buildings range in size from 6m to more than 13m long and from about 3.5m to 4.2m wide. Three of them have walls of faced rubble, while two have mortared walls. The two mortared buildings are gable-ended structures furnished with windows and fireplaces, and each is divided into two compartments which were entered separately from outside.

They originally stood end-on to each other, about 9.7m apart and both set into the hillside, but at some point they were joined together to form a structure 36.2m in overall length. A third gabled building, some 20m to the SW, is 13.8m long by 4m wide internally and is aligned NE to SW across the contour of the hillslope. It has three rooms, with their floors at different levels (stepping down to the SW); the room at the SW end has a fireplace.

The other two buildings are much smaller, both just over 6m long by 3.9m and 3.4m wide respectively. The former has two rooms, one with an open SW end, suggesting that it was a cart shed. Around these buildings there are a number of stone-walled enclosures, in one of which stands a cheese-press.

The mill is situated at the SW edge of the farmstead and was supplied by a covered lade, which runs from a dammed pond about 80m to the NE. The mill measures 9m by 4m, within mortared rubble walls 0.6m thick. Set into the slope on its NE side, it has an entrance in the SW wall at ground level, and another at first-floor level in the NW gable, accessed from the roof of the lade.

The lade runs around the NW end of the building to a 4m long wheel-pit on the SW side. There is a hole for the drive-shaft in the mill wall and an earlier hole, now blocked, beside it. A change in the masonry above the later hole suggests that the wall was rebuilt when it was put in.

This farmstead is depicted on the Ordnance Survey First Edition map (Perthshire 1867, sheet lxi) and annotated as "Parktown". Most of the buildings were at least partly roofed at that time.

The area proposed for scheduling comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material is likely to survive. It is irregular in shape, with maximum dimensions of 115m N-S by 95m E-W, 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 post-Improvement upland settlement and economy. Its importance is increased by its group value, complexity and the range of architectural features and different types of building present.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NN 94 SE 17.

Aerial Photographs used:

RCAHMS 1993 C12479.

Map references:

Ordnance Survey First Edition map 1867 (Perthshire) shire LXI, 6 inches to 1 mile.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland