[1] The present ruins date from at least the start of the 20th century with structural evidence for at least three phases of development that finally ceased when the mill closed and abandoned c. 1938.

[7] The miller's dwelling originally doubled as a small farm with a garden, stabling and a few acres of land.

[8] Nether Mill was the property of the Earl of Glasgow in the 1850s with a George Dickie as the tenant, possibly the son of the previous miller.

[9][10] Three others had been found closer to Kilbirnie Bridge, one of which contained a funerary urn filled with burnt bones, but none with a tumulus or mound over them.

[6] George Dickie, corn miller at Nether Mill, died on May 6, 1859, of old age and is buried at Kilbirnie Kirk.

[11] Thirlage was the feudal law by which the laird could require all those farmers living on his lands to bring their grain to his barony mill to be ground.

Additionally, they had to carry out repairs on the mill, maintain the lade and weir as well as conveying new millstones to the site.

[12][13] The Thirlage Law was repealed in 1779[12] and after this many mills fell out of use as competition and unsubsidised running costs took their toll.

[16] The wheel pit with its well built splash wall of high quality dressed stone survives and the water was carried via a tail race to a confluence with the nearby River Garnock.

A substantial and partly walled lade was built that ran parallel to the lane for a short distance and this carried the water from the wheel down to Garnock.

[15] By 1895 the Kilbirnie Branch of the Lanarkshire and Ayrshire Railway with its embankment had been built and lay immediately to the east of the mill, closing in 1930.

[6][5] In Scotland, barrows or cairns of many types were in common use for burials from the late Neolithic until the end of the Bronze Age.

Local belief regarded it as a tumulus, however it may have been formed by excavation between it and the adjoining bank to provide material for the dam, creating the second mill pond.

[6] The existing knowe lies to the south of the mill near the old junction in the lane for Unthank Cottage and the old lime kiln.

[6][10] In 2022 the inner ring of the cast iron waterwheel was intact and still linked with the drive wheel that ran into the mill interior.

After heavy rain water still ran through the course of the old spillway and lade and tail race, which remains intact to its confluence with the Garnock opposite the Kilbirnie Ladeside FC's grounds.

The mound[10] known locally as the Miller's Knowe still stands beyond the site of the possible cottage or grain kiln (datum 2022).

In 2007 a programme of archaeological evaluation and survey works was undertaken and the trenches had a common stratigraphic sequence with topsoil overlying variable subsoil.

The lane running south from the mill once linked up with the road system in the Lochend and Glengarnock area.

1792 - the miller, probably Alastair Dickie, was building the road near the mill pond when he uncovered an empty ancient stone coffin or kist.