Rosefield Mills – Scotland - Atlas Obscura

Rosefield Mills

A once beautiful, now decaying, riverside tweed mill awaits a new life but in 1940 it became the home of the Norwegian Army in Exile. 

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This remarkable  building which has been likened to the Doge’s Palace in Venice was designed in 1886 by, local architect,  Alan  Crombie for the production  of that famous Scottish product, woollen tweed. The company which commissioned  the building was  Charteries, Spence & Co. Ltd. It faces the River Nith in Dumfries just opposite  Dock Park and was one of several tweed mills in the city. The building  used to have two very tall chimneys  which served the steam engines  driving the mill.

Since it closed for tweed production in the 1920s it has had several other uses but the most notable came when Germany invaded and occupied Norway in 1940 and the soldiers, sailors and other patriots who escaped from the country to continue  the struggle alongside Britain were allocated the building as the HQ of the Norwegian  forces in the UK. Over 1,000 Norwegians were billeted in Rosefield Mills, before a larger barracks complex was built at Carronbridge, which lies to the  north of the town. Amongst the earliest arrivals were about 250 members of the Norwegian whaling fleet who were at sea when Germany invaded and refused to return to Norway. To commemorate their arrival in Dumfries a whale-shaped bench was installed in Dock Park, directly opposite the mill building, in 2019.

Since 1945 the old mill  has has several uses but the building has continued to decay. In 2019 it was purchased  by the Dumfries  Historic  Buildings Trust but now sits magnificently crumbling  whilst awaiting  a new life.

Know Before You Go

The building can be viewed either from Dock Park or  on the western side of the river along the riverside walk which skirts the property  boundary.