Water mill - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

The 1654-6 Civil Survey of Dublin recorded that in 1641 on the lands of 'Peter Hussie of Westowne' there stood 'one stone house part thereof slated ye rest thereof one small Chaffe Barne w[i]th] three or foure Cottages one Corne Mill & one Tuck Mill in use worth fifteen poundes w[hi]ch Mills are in ye aforesaid towne of Nall [Naul]' (Simington 1945, 32). The 1655-6 Down Survey map of the parish of Naul shows 'Paul [Naul] Bridge' (DU004-045008-) crossing the River Elfin [Delvin], to the E of a watermill in Co. Meath in the area where Naul Park House stands today. It is possible however that the mill depicted on the Down Survey map of Naul Parish was the watermill located on the S bank of the Delvin River rather than a mill in Co. Meath. The terrier of the Down Survey Map of the Parish of Naul recorded that at; 'ye. River Elfin on w[hi]ch Stands a Mill in Repaire, in the Towneland of the Naule & a Bridge (DU004-045008-) over the Said River' (NLI Ms. 714).
This was replaced by a flour mill erected by Arthur Mervyn between 1718 and 1722. The Old Mill ceased operations sometime between 1869 and 1906 and was roofless by 1934, when Oliver St. john Gogarty pondered the 'ruined .... roofless mill' in a poem he entitle The Mill at Naul. An archaeological assessment was undertaken (Licence No. 04E1261) prior to renovation. No archaeological finds or features were identified (O'Hara, 2004).

See attached Down Survey Map of the Barony of Balrothery showing 'The Naule Bridg' and watermill on the 'River of Elfin' (Hib. Reg.)

See attached Rocque's 1760 Map of County Dublin the settlement of Naul (https://digitalcollections.tcd.ie/concern/works/mg74qp03f)

NLI Ms 714 National Library of Ireland, The parish maps of the Down Survey for the county of Dublin, attested by William Petty in 1657, copied by Daniel O'Brien, 1786-1787.

Compiled by: Geraldine Stout

Updated by: Christine Baker

Revised by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of revised upload: 1 February 2023

References

Rocque, J. 1760 An Actual Survey of the County of Dublin, on the same Scale, as those of Middlesex, Oxford, Berks and Buckinghamshire. Available at http://sdublincoco.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=e0c5595b033341dea7661e248d2e9ee9// [Accessed 21 September 2016]

Hibernia Regnum: A set of 214 barony maps of Ireland dating to the period AD 1655-59. The original parish maps have been lost but the Hibernia Regnum maps are preserved in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris (Goblet 1932, v-x). Photographic facsimiles of these maps were published by the Ordnance Survey, Southampton in 1908.

O'Hara, R. 2004 Townparks, Athboy: urban medieval. In I. Bennett (ed.) Excavations 2002: summary accounts of archaeological excavations in Ireland, No. 1419, 401-03. Bray, Wordwell

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1945 The Civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol. VII: county of Dublin. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.