Mill - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Thomas Arthur's mill, one of a pair of mills (LI005-017075-) located between King John's Castle (LI005-017014-) and the medieval quay (LI005-017072-) (Leask 1941, 101). This is marked as 'Upper Mills' on map in O'Flaherty (2010, 3, Fig. 3) where it is described as 'Newgate Lane, W. end, in Curragour Castle. Mill 14th-15th cent.' (ibid., 30). It is very closely associated with 'Golding Mill' which is also described as 'Newgate Lane, W. end, in Curragour Castle. Mill 14th-15th cent.' (ibid., 30). The two mills were described by Leask (1941, 101) as following; 'At or near the foot of Newgate Lane—the "Rue des Moulins" of the French map [Lenihan 1866, 258] — were two water mills (J on Map). They stood out from the wall [LI005-017010-] just below the Curragower reef. These mills are specifically mentioned in the Civil Survey (Simington 1938, 442-3). There seem to have been two stone houses (36ft. by 30ft. [10.8m x 9.1m] and 45ft, by 27ft. [13.7m x 8.2m]) "with two mills (wheels?) therein seated and a thatched house. The map of 1590 [TCD, MS 1209/57] shows them as "Thos. Arthur's" [LI005-017074-] and the "Queen's Mills," and connected with the city wall (LI005-017010-) by a bridge'.
Both of these probably formed 'the King's Mills' mentioned by Hodkinson (2009, 23) who recorded that 'half of the mill building still exists within the grounds of City Hall, where two stubs of walls can be seen projecting out into the river (ibid.).

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien

Date of upload: 19 November 2019

References

O'Flaherty, E. 2010 Irish Historic Towns Atlas, no. 21, Limerick. Dublin. Royal Irish Academy.

Hodkinson, B. 2009 The medieval city of Limerick. Matthew Potter, Gearóid Ó Tuathaigh and Liam Irwin (eds.), Limerick history and society: interdisciplinary essays on the history of an Irish county, 17-40. Dublin. Geography Publications.

Leask, H.G. 1941 The ancient walls of Limerick. North Munster Antiquarian Journal 2, 95-108.

TCD, MS 1209/57 Trinity College Dublin, Citie of Limrick, per Joanes. Hardiman Atlas. Dublin.

Lenihan, M. 1866 Limerick: its history and antiquities.

Simington, R.C. (ed.) 1938 The civil survey, AD 1654-1656. Vol. IV: county of Limerick, with a section of Clanmaurice barony Co. Kerry. Dublin. Irish Manuscripts Commission.