Water mill - horizontal-wheeled

The National Monuments Service's description

The remains of this structure are located 8.5m SE of the enclosure (KE080-046001-). They comprise two parallel drystone-built walls which feature a slight outward curvature of their mid-points. The walls are carefully constructed of regular coursed flat slabs and corbel inwards, surviving to a maximum internal height of 2.6m. They stand 1.2m apart at base, average 3.5m long and are at least 2m wide. Overgrowth and collapse obscures the structure and there is a considerable build-up of collapse internally. A notched slab, 1.6m long x .6m high x .1m thick, inclines against the S ends of the walls; the rectangular notch, measuring .12m wide, is cut on the upper edge of the stone at the W end. Outside the structure is a massive slab, 2.25m x 1.55m x .12m thick, with a central perforation, .09m in diameter, and a second, smaller perforation located towards its W edge. A pair of ill-defined, diverging stony banks extends for about 12m from the S side of the structure; these banks average 2m wide and 1.5m high.
Lucas interpreted these remains as those of the wheel-house of a horizontal mill (1953, 9-14). He suggested that the large slab with two perforations originally surmounted the parallel walls and formed the floor of the mill-house, that the curvature on the inner face of each wall created sufficient space for the water-wheel to rotate, that the notch on the upright slab was intended to position the fore end of the flume, and that the banks at S were the remains of a headrace channel. Rynne, however, has suggested that the width of the putative wheel-house would not have allowed ample space for a water-wheel (1988, 231-2).

The above description is derived from O'Sullivan, A. and Sheehan, J. (compilers) 'The Iveragh peninsula: an archaeological survey of South Kerry'. Cork University press. (1996), no. 959. In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research.

Date of upload: 13 June 2013