[1] It is a Scheduled Industrial Monument (SM90310), considered to be of national importance[4] and the principles by which it functioned were originally derived from attempts at producing a perpetual motion machine.

[6] They were progressively replaced by steam powered water pumps such as the 1780s example once at Earlston in East Ayrshire and now preserved in the National Museum of Scotland.

[7] The horizontal circa 8.5 m (27 ft) long pitch-pine beam pivots on cast-iron step plummer blocks with brass bearings and a wrought iron axle.

[1][10] Two baulks of pitch pine are held together by wrought iron straps and reinforcing pads are located at the centre and beam ends.

The stone column has a decoratively carved cornice and has the general appearance of a typical 19th century railway bridge pier.

[4] The wooden bucket on the eastern end of the beam has long since rotted however the 2m deep stone lined pit, once draining into the Wanlock Burn, still survives.

The lead tank or cistern that formed the head of water once stood on the hill above the site and was fed by a launder from the Wanlock Burn.

The name 'Straitsteps' refers to a barren section between Straitsteps and the Bay Mine of the galena vein that runs from Mennockhass through the Dod Hill and on to the Limpen Rig.