1800–1825
Wind-powered pumping mill built
Oxwellmains Windmill was built as a wind-powered pumping mill for a quarry, probably in the early nineteenth century or earlier.
Site overview
Oxwellmains Windmill stands near Oxwellmains and was built as a pumping mill for a quarry. It is an early nineteenth-century or possibly earlier small tapered tower of coursed rubble with red sandstone ashlar coping. The site was already marked as a ruined windmill by 1853.
Map
Map markers and directions links are provided for location reference only and do not indicate public access or permission to enter a site.
No site photograph is currently available. Images will be added as field visits are carried out.
History
Oxwellmains Windmill is a former wind-powered pumping mill near Dunbar in East Lothian. It was built to pump water from quarry workings rather than as a conventional corn or meal mill. The surviving tower is small and tapered, built of coursed rubble with red sandstone ashlar coping.
It has a low north-west entrance and irregularly spaced holes above the base, probably associated with a former reefing stage. The windmill was already marked as a ruin on the 1853 Ordnance Survey map. The windcap, sails and machinery have gone, and no complete ownership sequence or final working date has been established.
Timeline
1853
Windmill marked as ruin
Oxwellmains Windmill was marked as Windmill (Ruin of) on the 1853 Ordnance Survey map.
1989
Listed building designation
Oxwellmains Windmill was listed at Category B on 17 May 1989.
Sources and records
Historic Environment Scotland listed building record; Trove / Canmore place record; Scottish Windmills: An Outline and Inventory; Historic Ordnance Survey mapping