page_title: Dalmore House and Estate
section_title: Hone stone
hierarchical_section_title: Dalmore House and Estate / Local industries / Hone stone
caption_attribution_description: English: Dalmore Holm, foundations of a long narrow building beneath mature trees. Stair, East Ayrshire, Scotland
context_page_description: Dalmore was a country house and small estate in the Parish of Stair, East Ayrshire, on the River Ayr, East Ayrshire, Scotland
context_section_description: Originally hone stones were taken from the riverbed, however as early as 1789 a quarry for whetstone existed on the estate, producing whetstones known either as 'Water-of-Ayr' stone or 'Tam o' Shanter' stone depending on their geological characteristics; The Hone Works themselves were situated west of the Stair Bridge. In 1789 a Mr Smith of Mauchline held the lease to one of the quarries; possibly the one situated near Stair Wood, beside the Glenstang Burn, as marked on the OS map. This Smith is well known for his families involvement in the famous 'Mauchline ware'. William Aiton in 1808 records that extensive use of hone took place at Gadgirth. The Laigh Dalmore mine was drained until about 1938 using a beam engine with a 20 ft. beam, supplied with steam by a Lancashire boiler.
  Three buildings made up the Dalmore Mill complex, one of which is two-storeys high and partly unroofed due to vandalism in 2003. The works finally closed circa 1990, although some stone was still being worked in 2000. A suspension footbridge, dating from 1902, crosses the river to Milton Mill which was part of the complex.
   
  The lade is still visible as a shallow ditch running from the river to the mill, a sluice originally controlling the water flow. A sizeable and unusual sculpture of a sheaf of corn with the name 'W Heron, 1821' is located on the mill wall, part of which was rebuilt after a German plane jettisoned incendiary bombs onto it in 1942. 
  The mill at Milton had originally been a woollen mill, opened on New Year's Day 1830 by Mr. Heron of Dalmore House and working until 1908. William (1795–1847) and Andrew (1797–1869) Smith were sons of William Smith, a mason in Mauchline. In the 1820s it is recorded that the brothers were running a Hone stone factory at Milton Mill and it is thought that the Smith brothers diversified as Box Makers and established the famous Mauchline Ware manufacture in the village of Mauchline because they wished to have their own source of cases for their 'Water of Ayr Stones'. Milton Mill generated electricity for the works from 1935 to 1964 using a turbine until a flood wrecked the motors; a Boving turbine installed circa 1935 provided power to the mine, the machinery being in a separate building.
  In 1857 Dalmore Mill was described as 'A hone mill worked by water-10 horse power-two storeys high, slated and in good repair'. In later years Dalmore Mill housed the offices and stores. The stone from the aforementioned Dalmore Quarry was dressed and polished at the mill which was the property of William Dun Esq. of Dalmore House at that
  time. 
  The Dalmore Waggonway
  The 1902 OS map shows a narrow gauge mineral railway running from Laigh Dalmore quarry to Dalmore Mill; a number of the old rails are stacked (2010) in the old quarry. The Victorian photograph of Enterkine shows the track in situ, although no railway sleepers are visible. Sidings may have been present. The gauge was 20 inch, the same as the tracks in the mine and the line was worked by horses until about 1945 when it was taken up and a horse and cart were used instead; later a lorry was employed.
caption: Dalmore holm and foundations of a structure beneath the mature trees
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