High Mill / Botany Mill

Status: At risk / initial repairs

Last reviewed: 15 July 2026

Address: Botany Lane, off Roxburgh Street, Galashiels, TD1 1PB

Built: c.1870-1880

High Mill is the principal surviving building of the historic Botany Mill site. The present four-storey weaving mill probably dates from about 1870-80, but the site itself was used for textile production from 1797. Its fabric therefore marks both the long continuity of the industry and a decisive period of technological change.

Quick Facts

Historical Development

Textile working on this site began well before the present High Mill was built. Hugh Sanderson, clothier, and Thomas Clapperton, weaver, established a fulling mill here in 1797. The first building was modest – recorded as about 40 feet long, 18 feet wide and 18 feet high – but it was enlarged with spinning capacity in 1829 as local manufacture moved beyond small workshops.

The works were originally known as Weirhaugh Mill. The later name Botany Mill is traditionally explained by the use of Botany wool, imported from New South Wales, and the site is said to have been the first mill in Galashiels to use it. That explanation appears in the historic records, although the exact date when the name changed is not known.

A serious fire in 1870 caused extensive damage, reported by Robert Hall at about £10,000 (p. 398). Historic Environment Scotland considers that the earlier buildings were probably destroyed and dates the surviving High Mill to about 1870-80. It was built for Sime, Sanderson and Company at a moment when Galashiels textile production was approaching its greatest scale.

A Slow-Loom Mill

High Mill is identified as a rare survivor of a multi-storey “slow loom” mill. Before faster power looms became usual from about 1880, looms could be accommodated on floors within tall, narrow buildings lit by regular rows of windows. Later weaving sheds generally spread production across broad single-storey floors. High Mill therefore preserves evidence of a relatively short-lived stage in the development of mechanised weaving.

By the time the property was sold in 1932, the building was described as a wood store. That change of use may have helped preserve its basic form after its original production method became obsolete.

Architecture and Surviving Fabric

The mill is four storeys high and six bays long, with a canted bay at its southern corner. It is built of whinstone and sandstone rubble with contrasting red sandstone dressings, beneath a purple-slated M-shaped roof and central valley gutter. Repeated window openings give the elevations their disciplined industrial rhythm.

Inside, the floors are supported by cast-iron columns and timber beams, while a timber stair survives. Although later subdivision has altered the interior, this structural system still helps explain how the working floors were arranged. The building is also part of a close historic group with the former Morrison and Murray engineering works and the Glasite Chapel in Botany Lane.

Current Position

The Buildings at Risk Register recorded High Mill as vacant but in fair condition, with a low category of risk. Its 2016 inspection noted increasing slipped slates and a malfunctioning gutter. Repeated marketing followed.

In June 2024 a new owner told the Register that targeted repairs had made the building wind- and watertight and secured its openings while a longer-term regeneration proposal was developed. That is an encouraging and important first step. It does not, by itself, remove the need for a viable use, continuing maintenance and a detailed conservation strategy. The Register is now paused and should not be treated as a live condition report.

Why It Matters

High Mill tells several stories at once: the early growth of water-powered manufacturing, the rebuilding that followed industrial fire, the transition from slow to fast looms, and the later reuse of redundant mill floors. Its height and materials also give Botany Lane an unmistakably industrial identity. Together with the neighbouring chapel and engineering buildings, it forms one of the clearest surviving fragments of the working landscape that made modern Galashiels.

Conservation and Re-use

The immediate priority is to sustain the holding repairs: roofs, valley gutters, rainwater goods and openings need regular inspection. A long-term scheme should retain the legibility of the open floor plates, cast-iron columns, timber beams, window rhythm and M-roof. New services and circulation will require careful planning, but a use that keeps the building occupied is likely to offer its best protection.

Significance Scores

These are editorial guide scores, not statutory designations. They assess heritage significance rather than present condition or development value. See How We Assess Significance.

Notes and Uncertainties

The date 1797 belongs to the first documented mill on the site, not to the present listed building. The surviving block is generally dated to c.1870-80 because the extent of destruction in the 1870 fire is not recorded with complete precision. The traditional explanation of the Botany name is plausible and well established in local accounts, but the date of its first use remains uncertain. The effect and present condition of the 2024 repairs have not been independently assessed by this website.

Sources and Further Reading

Citation format: source or collection, followed by the record title or description. Where a source still needs to be found, the page says so plainly.

Corrections and additional evidence are welcome, especially better dates, image credits, map references, archive links, planning references or source details that help verify this record.

• Historic Environment Scotland designation LB50715: Roxburgh Street, Botany Mill, High Mill
• Buildings at Risk Register: High Mill, Botany Lane (risk history; register currently paused)
• Trove / National Record of the Historic Environment: Galashiels, Roxburgh Street, Botany Mill
• Trove archive: Botany Mill, Roxburgh Street, Galashiels

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