Mill - corn

The National Monuments Service's description

This mill is a National Monument in State ownership (no. 639). Petty and Molls' 17th century map of Co. Donegal records the presence of a watermill at Newmills in 1683 and corn and flax mills have been located on this site since the early 19th century at least. This combination (i.e. corn and flax) is found mainly in Ulster where both types of mill were intimately linked to the surrounding farming economy. The mills were in the ownership of Josephy Hunter until 1861 when he sold them to John Devine. The complex was purchased from his son by Patrick Gallagher in 1892 who also bought a residence, public house, grocery and ancillary buildings, including a scutcher’s cottage; this was located in a field beside the mill pond. The complex also included a forge on the opposite side of the road as well as a sizable farm of land. The business at Newmills was continued by his son, P.F. Gallagher until his death in 1980.
Extensive improvements to the corn mill were made around 1907 when the present waterwheel was inserted and improvements were also made to the machinery within the mill. During the Second World War, P.F. Gallagher took advantage of the revival of the flax industry when the British Government offered grants to increase the production of flax to guarantee the supply of linen for the war effort. He demolished a small single-storey flax mill in the early 1940s to make way for the relatively modern looking building. The public house and grocery were an important part of the whole enterprise and proved quite successful in the early years of the 20th century. Indeed, a lively export trade developed and when Sir Thomas Lipton started his grocery business in Glasgow, he received his first consignment of butter, bacon, eggs from Newmills.
The importance of Newmills was recognised in a 1978 inventory of industrial archaeological monuments compiled by An Foras Forbatha which identified it as by far the best example of a mill complex in County Donegal. In 1986, the mills were purchased by the state for preservation as a national monument (No. 639). Under the direction of the Office of Public Works, a group of Irish and international volunteers restored the mills and millrace in 1989.

The mill is a three-storey building and all the apparatus of the mill, stone, sieves, bucket elevators, fans and a sack hoist are powered by a 7.63 metre (25 ft) waterwheel manufactured by J.Stevenson's Strabane Foundry in 1867.

Revised by: Paul Walsh

Date of upload: 18 September 2012

This monument is subject to a preservation order made under the National Monuments Acts 1930 to 2014 (PO no. 8/1984).