It is assumed that there has been a mill where the current Mill of Benholm sits since the 12th century, at a time when Benholm started to flourish more.
Benholm has a long history. Lying in the centre of the historic parish of the same name there has been a church on the site since at least 1242AD. The Mill has similarly early origins and it is probable that there has been a mill at Benholm since at least the 12th century, a charter in 1492 gives further evidence of the mill when John and Isabel Lundy granted the lands and barony of ‘Benhame’ with the mill to their son, Robert. In the following century the mill passed by marriage from the Lundy family to the Keiths, the powerful Earls Marischal, as records show. The nearby Benholm Kirk displays the Keith Monument from 1620. The first miller officially recorded was Archibald Brown in 1696.. Parts of the existing mill building date back to the 18th century (1711 was engraved on a stone and visible until recently), although the majority of buildings on the site are Victorian, with the mill being rebuilt in 1817. By the beginning of the 18th century, if not long before, there was a well established community at Benholm.
New bridges got built for the historic Coach Road, the bridge over the Burn of Benholm in 1729 (Birnie Bridge) and the bigger bridge (Benholm Bridge) over the Castle Burn in 1795/96. This was crucial for the main route from Montrose to Aberdeen in the 18th Century, known as the “post road” or the “auld road”, which passed through the settlement across those two bridges.
The Mill of Benholm was milling oats until 1982 when the last active miller of Benholm Lindsay C Watson died. Mr Watson was the first miller in history to have bought the Mill of Benholm from the local landowner. The mill stones stopped their grinding work, the fires of the kiln extinguished for good and the noise of the waterwheel was not to be heard anymore.
But only a few years later the then Kincardine and Deeside District Council bought the Mill of Benholm in 1986 and an extensive restoration project was undertaken. The Mill of Benholm opened again in 1995 to the public as visitor centre, museum, café, a place to meet and learn, and a haven of peace.
Due to health and safety issues the Mill of Benholm was closed in 2014 and has been mothballed since then. `it is dearly missed by the local community and visitors alike.
In April 2024 the Mill of Benholm Enterprise has become the new owner of the Mill of Benholm and has started the process to take this Gem of the Mearns out of its decade long hibernation and return it to its former glory again.
