Silverburn

The previous post referred to David Russell, who resided at Silverburn and at one time grew flax there which was subsequently sent to the Largo Oil and Cake Mill to be crushed.  David Russell (1831-1906) had taken on Silverburn in the Parish of Scoonie (adjoining Largo Parish) in 1854 at the age of 23. He set about redeveloping the property and created a flax mill and retting facilities. Evidence of this can still be seen at the Silverburn Estate today.  Above is a view of the flax mill on the left and the workers cottages on the right. The flax retting pond can be seen in the photograph below. Bundles of flax would have been submerged in the water, causing the inner cells to swell, bursting the outer layer, and allowing separation of the fibres from the woody tissue. Bundles would have been weighted down with stones and left for several days.

When David Russell realised that the flax industry was on the wane, he took on the old spinning mill at Lower Largo and converted it for seed crushing. In 1874, he moved into paper-making, at the mills at Rothes and Auchmuty, with his Tullis relatives.  David married Janet Hutchison in 1868 and they went on to have three sons and four daughters.  The beautiful gardens at Silverburn are a legacy of the Russells' interest in botany.

(Source: 'Sir David Russell - A Biography' by Lorn Macintyre (1994))