Hookin Mill (Canmore ID 3246) is located on the east coast of Papa Westray, standing between the Loch of St Tredwell and the waters of South Wick Bay (NGR HY 50057 51228).
Recording was undertaken by the ORCA team and local volunteers in October 2024.
Historical background
The mill and wheel pit are both depicted on the First Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1881. To the south, a linear watercourse running northeast-southwest from the Loch of St Treadwell is marked as ‘Mill Lade’. The map also shows the sluice towards the north end of the mill race, with the watercourse beyond the sluice being culverted as it passes under a trackway.
Building survey
The mill is a rectangular stone rubble-built structure with large corner quoins. Overall, it measures approximately 11m long by 5.9m wide and the walls survive to a height varying between 1.8m and 2.5m. There is a central external doorway in the south-facing wall and an opposing doorway in the north-facing wall.
The wheel pit runs along the base of the east-facing gable but much of the detail is obscured by pebble infill, and the north end of the pit has been replaced by a modern culvert to allow water to continue to flow from the loch into the sea. Remnants of the water wheel’s cast iron spokes are visible above the pebbled infill.
The west gable has collapsed to the greatest degree, with its centre reduced almost to ground level.
Inside, a ledge extends across the full length of the east elevation and is probably associated with the grinding machinery that would have operated here. Traces of a possible window are visible at the top of the internal south wall, but this cannot be seen outside.
Slots for a beams are preserved in the north and south walls, and these beams may have helped support the shafts and gears which turned the grindstones. Fragments of mill machinery remain at the east end of the building, including a cast iron wheel with square holes through the rim.
The cast iron wheel may be connected directly to the axle of the waterwheel outside but the rubble and scrub vegetation inside the mill and the pebbles stones in the wheel pit obscure the view of any linking machinery. Two grindstones were partially visible within the rubble.
