Barry Mill is a three-level structure made of sandstone rubble. It features a basement (meal floor), a ground floor (milling or stone floor), and an attic (hopper or bin floor), with a roof made of Angus stone slate.
The mill turns oats into oatmeal. Originally, the oats would come in sacks from nearby farms, already threshed. A traditional threshing machine is on display at the mill. While the oats are pre-processed today, the milling still follows traditional techniques.
You can find the pit wheel, great spur wheel, and a stone nut in the cog pit. Oats are lifted to the top bin floor and poured into a hopper that feeds one of two pairs of millstones on the mill floor. The first pair of sandstone millstones removes the grain's outer shell, creating ‘groats’, which are sent down a chute to the basement for husk separation using a fan. The groats are then lifted back up and processed through the second pair of French burr stone millstones to make oatmeal, which is sent to the basement for bagging.
The mill is powered by the Barry Burn, with a dam and lade located half a mile upstream that direct water to the mill wheel. This huge wheel turns as water flows from the lade on the downstream side. The mill’s power is managed by a system of levers, cogs, and gears in the basement, which provides energy to the millstones, hoists, and a fan to separate groats from chaff.
The mill then grinds whole oat groats into the desired consistency of oatmeal.
