Newmill Farm

Stanley, Perthshire

LOCAL HISTORY

There has been a settlement at Newmill for over 3000 years. The A9 realignment in the 1970’s revealed a Stone Age souterrain (underground passage or chamber) and artefacts dating back to 2000 BC. Ariel photographs show that quite a large village was at Newmill up until 2000 year ago.

The settlement was absorbed back into the landscape of natural Caledonian Pine Forest until Lord Nairne bought the land from the Crown in the 1700’s. He built the first mill in 1765 to process timber from the estate.

In the 1830’s a new mill was built in the farm steading to thrash grain and provide power. This lasted until the 1950’s when electricity replaced the unreliable river power.

Much of the old steading was knocked down and replaced by modern farm buildings in the 1970’s, although the course of the old mill dam and lade can still be seen.