Low Mill

In 1749 Richard Nimmo of Edinburgh converted a waulk mill to paper manufacture. Waulk mills were often converted to paper mills as their sites and machinery were very suitable for conversion to paper mills. In addition to the water supply for power and for processing, waulk mills contained stampers (used in the preparation of cloth) which could be easily converted for use in rag preparation. All early hand-made paper-mills made paper from cotton and linen rags.

Following the boost to trade generated by the ending of the Napoleonic Wars, Alexander Cowan bought Low Mill in 1815 and amalgamated it with his Valleyfield Mill. It continued making hand-made paper until the installation of a papermaking machine around 1832. It closed in 1975.