Mill - unclassified

The National Monuments Service's description

Queen's mill, one of a pair of mills (LI005-017074-) located between King John's Castle (LI005-017014-) and the medieval quay (LI005-017072-). 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 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

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.

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

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

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

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.