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A renovated watermill in Aberfeldy is an innovative new arts venue. |
Renovating the old watermill in Aberfeldy must have felt at times like a millstone around the necks of new owners Kevin and Jayne Ramage. Yet the resulting light and airy bookshop, art gallery, music and coffee shop are anything but run-of-the-mill.
History was turned full circle when popular ex-Monty Python traveller and author Michael Palin did the honours in opening the stylish arts venue earlier this year, bringing the mill back to life by pulling the lever that set the waterwheel in motion. Now redesigned by a local engineer to generate electricity within the building, the wheel is an integral, decorative part of the project – though the noise it produces isn’t always suitable for library-type conditions!
The new proprietors had decided to relocate from London (where Michael Palin was a regular customer at their bookshop) to the picturesque village of Aberfeldy to enjoy a more rural way of life. They were hunting for new premises when they stumbled across the Grade-A listed building. Once an actual working mill and tourist attraction until the recent death in 2002 of the eighth-generation miller, Tom Rodger, the previously well-loved property had fallen into neglect.
‘The mill had been empty for over two years and was really dark and dingy, covered in flour and grain,’ Kevin says of his first impressions. ‘It was a bit like a rabbit warren and we had to view it with torches on’!
However, despite the dreariness of the interior, the imaginative couple were able to envisage an exciting historic building where they could create a flourishing cultural centre, without detracting from the charm of the original mill. While Jayne is a primary teacher and encourages children’s reading groups at weekends, Kevin runs Owl Bookshop Ltd, a well-established business with two other shops in North London and Ilkley, Yorkshire.
Buying the Aberfeldy property in January 2004, the wheels were soon put in motion for a local and enterprising architect – Mackenzie Strickland – to draw up plans and submit them to the authorities. Planning permission was granted by October of the same year and, working closely with Historic Scotland, the renovation began.
It wasn’t easy. Nine walls were demolished, with steel supporting beams installed in their place, and a 30-foot-high kiln had to be removed by cutting it into rings – the only way it could leave the building. Eager to retain as much of the original mill as possible, much of the machinery is still in situ, while quirky ways of recycling materials include placing kiln bricks in the shop counters and using old cogwheels as bases for the co
Do you think the buildings now being constructed in Scotland are of a lesser quality than those of an earlier era
