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Wind-powered threshing-machine drive in use
Papa Westray, Gowrie, Wind-Engine was used as a wind-powered farm machine associated with threshing.
Site overview
Papa Westray, Gowrie, Wind-Engine was an industrial wind-powered farm machine at Gowrie. It was associated with threshing-machine power rather than a conventional milling tower.
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
Papa Westray, Gowrie, Wind-Engine was a former wind-powered farm machine at Gowrie on Papa Westray in Orkney. The site was associated with an engine, windmill and post-medieval threshing machine. It belonged to the group of small Orkney wind-powered mechanical drives used for farm work before modern power systems became available.
Comparative drawings and photographs were made of the wind-powered threshing-machine drive. Later survey work could not relocate the remains with certainty. No detailed maker, construction date, ownership sequence, complete machinery inventory, or final operating date has been established.
Timeline
1958
Ordnance Survey index card created
An Ordnance Survey index card was made for Papa Westray, Gowrie, Wind-Engine in 1958.
1998
Wind-engine not relocated
The Gowrie wind-engine site could not be relocated during late twentieth-century survey work.
Sources and records
Trove / Canmore place record; RCAHMS archive record; Scottish Windmills: A Survey; Orkney industrial heritage report