Robin Thomson, today a local businessman and descendant of Joseph Thomson (1st cousin three times removed to Joseph Thomson), the explorer, grew up in a house close by the Old Mill in the village of Keir. It was derelict then and he and his friends spent many happy hours playing there. It was therefore no surprise to the locals when Robin and his wife Margaret approached the late Jim Young of Waterside farm with a view buying it and converting it into a home. That was in 1981 and now, almost thirty years later, the building has been transformed and the garden is well established.

During the conversion the whitewashed walls of the building were sandblasted to reveal a stone dated 1769 and, when a new window was knocked out, a matchbox was found with the name Joseph Black on it, dated 1884. However, a mill is reputed to have been in existence there from the 1600`s. The present building has sandstone identical in colour and texture to neareby Capenoch House which was built with stone quarried a mile away beside Quarry Cottages. Although the wheel is no longer there its turning circle is still marked on the wall where the overshot mechanism stood. Robin still has photos which explain how the miller would lean out of an upper window to disable the wheel in cases of emergency. He would then dash up to the sluice and redirect the water which came from the dam, on the west side of Keir, down a gulley and back into the burn which is a main feature of their most attractive garden.

Here retaining walls have been built by Willie Maxwell and Wattie McTeir with sandstone saved during reclamation work. The only other original features being an ash and a willow tree. The garden has been designed by Margaret and contains various exotic trees such as eucalyptus, a bottle brush tree, a tree fern, a yucca plant and a Korean pine. Margaret has a selection of azaleas and rhododendrons which look their best in spring but she has ensured that the colours of the plants are interesting throughout the year. There are many plants with berries to encourage a wide variety of different species of birds including tits, blackbirds, woodpeckers, kingfishers, doves and pigeons. She and Robin take great pleasure in watching the feeding stations which they have installed near the windows.

The burn separates their property from a patch of natural scrubland which is a haven for birds and butterflies. Their vegetable garden has been converted to a leisure area and is bounded by a beautiful semi-circular sand- stone wall built by Alan Sutherland. This is now a gravelled area with a summer house and a table made from the base of Robin`s mother`s treadle sewing machine- a wonderful feature! Another great feature is Margaret`s blue “Monet” bridge which affords access over a pond, the home of newts, frogs and toads and where an otter regularly feeds before rolling about on the lawn.

‘It has taken years of hard work before achieving our dream,’ said Robin, but they both agreed that the whole project has been well worth the effort. The day the garden opened to the public in 2008, in aid of Charity must have given them tremendous satisfaction.

Sophia Harkness