Water mill - horizontal-wheeled

The National Monuments Service's description

This horizontal-wheeled water mill was excavated in 1994, following its discovery at the base of a watercourse during drainage operations. It was situated on the course of a stream that flows into the Butlerstown River. According to the excavator (Cotter 1995, 12), the watercourse, dug in the 1960s, destroyed most of the stratigraphy and probably much of the structure itself. The surviving elements of the water mill consisted of a single flume and parts of the undercroft, along with a number of timbers that had collapsed into the undercroft. The undercroft would have originally measured c. 2.14m E-W x c. 2m N-S. Only the lower courses of the N stone wall survived and these had slumped inwards. The other walls would have been of timber construction. The S soleplate of the undercroft survived intact and had a number of mortices cut into it. These would have held the uprights that formed the wall of the wheelhouse. On the W side of the undercroft a substantial beam supported the flume. The N part of this beam had completely decayed. Its S end rested against the W end of the S sole plate, held in place by a lap joint. The undercroft had a floor of wooden planks (Wth 0.2m; T 3cm), the N ends of which had also completely decayed. The flume (min. L c. 1m) was fashioned from a single block of timber in which a rectangular channel (Wth 0.3m; D 0.34m) had been cut, narrowing at its lower end so as to increase the force of the waterjet hitting the wheel. A section of a rebate on one of the upper edges survived, indicating that the channel was roofed with a wooden lid (Cotter 2003d, 109). The base of the flume was notched so as to fit onto the support beam underneath. No trace of the mill-wheel or the millstones survived, though the landowner recalled seeing the complete waterwheel and a large stone which was probably one of the millstones when the watercourse was first dug in the 1960s. All of the structural timbers recovered during excavation were of oak, but a peg found lying on the floorboards was of holly. Dates centering on AD 800 were returned for two of the timber samples obtained during excavations. (Cotter 1995, 12; 2003d, 105-116)

The above description is derived from 'The Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 5' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2009).

Date of upload: 22 December 2009