294 Of 365: The River Almond At Fair a Far

   The River Almond once powered five mills between Cramond Brig and the sea. Originally grain mils, four were converted to iron working/ Fair-a-Far Mill processed wooden cloth before being converted to a forge. Other mills worked with paper and furniture. After the iron industry closed down, it became a paint factory and store. 1935, a flood damaged the building beyond repair.

 The ruined walls are all that's left of the Fair-a-Far Mill. From 1770, it was at the heart of Cramond's industrial revolution. Ships brought in iron from Russia and Sweden to Cockle Mill, just downstream, where it was refined and cut into strips . At Fair-a-Far-a-Far, the walls reflected the glow of the furnace and rang with the sound of a great trip hammer. It pounded the hot iron strips to make tools, chains and cart axles.

   Cramond's industrial heyday didn't last long. The company which ran the mills was poorly managed: customers often complained the their orders were wrong. And the river was a fickle power source, prone to flash floods that often damaged machines. By the mid-1800s, the Cramond mils had been overtaken by larger, more modern ironworks at Carron, near Falkirk.