Such buildings provided a valuable source of fresh meat and eggs, adding variety to meals in the winter months.

The large amounts of droppings, which built up on the doocot's floors, made a valuable general fertiliser and was also used in the production of gunpowder and in such processes as the dyeing of linen and in tanning leather.

[12] Windmills were often built in areas of low rainfall or where the land was flat and the water current sluggish however in this coastal location the advantage was the expectation of strong winds at all times of the year.

The structure, built of local materials, often stone rubble, stood on an artificial mound over a stone-built vaulted chamber or cellar.

[16] Scottish windmills, as with watermills, were basically meal-mills, mainly producing wheaten and oaten meals as well as ground barley and bruised corn.

The mill has a slated conical roof surmounted by a probable weather vane in the form of a running fox or dog.

An oval plan Iron Age hill fort with three ditches and an entrance to the north-west is visible in aerial photographs with the windmill standing within its former central area.