1750
Bridgeness windmill built
Bridgeness Tower was built in 1750 as a tower windmill at Windmill Crag.
Site overview
Bridgeness Tower stands on Windmill Crag at Bridgeness, Bo'ness. It was built in 1750 as a vertical-sided tower windmill and later converted into an observatory. The former windmill survives as a distinctive reused tower structure.
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
Bridgeness Tower is a former windmill tower at Bridgeness, Bo'ness. The tower stands on a rocky mound known as Windmill Crag on the south shore of the Firth of Forth. It was built in 1750, and the lintel of the ground-floor doorway carries an inscription with the initials of David Stevenson and Helen Paterson.
The tower was originally a vertical-sided windmill and was later converted into an observatory in the nineteenth century. The later use altered the building, but the former windmill tower remains a prominent survival of eighteenth-century wind-powered milling in the Bo'ness area. No complete machinery description, original ownership sequence beyond the building inscription, or precise final windmill working date has been established.
Timeline
1800–1899
Converted to observatory
The former Bridgeness windmill tower was converted into an observatory in the nineteenth century.
Sources and records
Trove / Canmore place record; Falkirk local history article; Scottish Windmills list; historic mapping