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The history of the Mills at Golspie begins in about 1814 or 1816 when
the Countess of Sutherland had a flour mill built in Golspie to grind
grain, especially wheat being grown on the newly improved farms in the
district. A house was built for the miller and his family, and has always
been lived in by the miller and his family. Mill workers' cottages and
outbuildings completed the burnside complex.
The current Golspie Mill was built nearby in 1863 as a meal mill, grinding mostly oats and bere. The mills worked in tandem until around 1922, when the earlier mill was abandoned. The mills were run until the earlier part of the 20th century under the feudal system of thirlage, the miller as tacksman taking muture (a proportion of the meal made) as his payment from the tenant of the estate (sucheners).
The Mackay family took over the mill from the Gunns and were the last tenants working the mill in 1953, when milling activity ceased.
In 1992, Fergus and Eleanor Morrison, who had renovated and worked the Boardhouse Mill in Orkney for the previous 10 years, took on the lease of the mill and restored it to working order. The mill is a typical Scottish estate meal mill and apart from a few minor alterations, is substantially the same as it was in 1863.
The mill was taken over in 2001 by Mike and Becky Shaw, who are carrying on the ancient traditions of milling using water power.
