From latest technology to centuries-old milling

After marvelling at modern shipping technology in Fife, the Duchess of Rothesay travelled north to admire older machinery in Perthshire.

At the Blair Atholl Watermill Bakery she was given an insight into a process that has been carried out at the site since at least 1590.

The duchess was given a tour of the three levels of the working flour mill, including the hoppers on the third floor and the giant grinding stones on the floor below.

She was also given a look around the watermill’s tearoom, meeting staff and customers, before retiring to have a private lunch with owners Rami and Kirsty Cohen, where she sampled a number of cakes and sandwiches baked with flour milled on site.

After the meal Rami said: “She was fascinated by the mill and the fact that there’s no electricity, buttons or computers involved, the same as it has been for hundreds of years and the fact that it still works – she was impressed but not surprised by that.”

Employee Alisdair Sutherland, who as a trained joiner helped restore the watermill shortly after it was badly damaged in a fire in the 1970s, said the duchess had liked that the site still used traditional lead weights to measure out flour.

Colleague Paul Booth said she had told him she found modern machinery “too complicated”.

The watermill visit followed on from an engagement at the House of Bruar, near Blair Atholl, where the duchess met staff and local schoolchildren.