Portobello Mill was built where the Figgate Burn runs into the Firth of Forth in 1783. It was initially a flax mill, later it turned out lead paint, and then mustard and, in 1836, paper. From 1844-1870 first Thomas Craig, and then David Craig & Co. owned the mill and were perhaps making printings. Hunter & Aikenhead had the mill in 1871, and were making 'printings, news and middles'. It was Mill No 77 at both at least from 1852 until 1871. On 20th April 1916 it was bought by John Galloway & Company Limited for £30,000. It was a small mill with only one engine. There was simply not room at Portobello for a larger mill; and even if there had been room, the site was cramped and awkward, and the Figgate Burn was not as 'agreeable' as other sources of water, with a tendency to dry up in a fine summer, and with a flour mill upstream which flooded it with effluent when it was not interfering with the supply in other, and more drastic, ways. On 25 August 1924, the firm moved to the Balerno Bank Paper Mills.'
More Information
Dates of Activity1844-1871
Online Resourcehttp://www.nls.uk/ Scottish Book Trade Index online (list)
Hunter & Aiken (1871) head Portobello mill, **Portobello
Names
HeadingPortobello Paper Mill used in: National Library of Scotland, Scottish Book Trade Index
Sources
Found inEdin Dir. — Thomson. — Alistair G. Thomson. “The paper industry in Scotland 1590-1861”. Edinburgh, 1974. — 'Table of paper-mills according to their numbers' in “The Paper & Printing Trades Journal” September, 1876. — “Galloways of Balerno”. London, privately printed 1968.