Windmill

The National Monuments Service's description

Located on the summit of Feltrim Hill as depicted on Rocque's 1760 Map of County Dublin. where it is shown as a circular-shaped tower with conical roof and four wind-sails..  A photograph of the windmill taken around the year 1890, shows the windmill as a tapering tower standing three storeys high with no roof and an old quarry is visible in close proximity to the windmill (NLI, L_ROY_07917).  According to Flanagan (1984, 52, 59) this structure was erected originally as a woollen mill  by Dutch workers shortly after 1667 using Dutch bricks (1984, 52, 59). It was later converted to a corn mill and operated as such until 1839 when it was also used as a Semaphore Tower transmitting messages from hill to hill as part of a network of hilltop towers transmittin messages between Dublin and Belfast in the early 19th-century (ibid.)   Windmill demolished on the 23rd of October in 1973 except for the base.   Today  substantial remains of the base survive located on a precipice overlooking a modern quarry which surrounds the base of the windmill.

Compiled by:  Caimin O'Brien

References

Flanagan, N. 1984 Malahide: past and present. Malahide. Privately published.

Rocque, J. 1762 An Actual Survey of the County of Dublin, on the same Scale, as those of Middlesex, Oxford, Berks and Buckinghamshire. Available at https://virtualtreasury.ie/item/LBC-Rocque-3 [Accessed 05 September 2025]

NLI, L_ROY_07917 - National Library of Ireland, Feltrim Hill, Swords, Co. Dublin. The Lawrence Photo Collection.