Mill - corn

The National Monuments Service's description

Owney Mill is mentioned in 1558 when the 'Earl of Sussex and his retinue came through an old abbey (LI014-014002-) and a mill called Onin O'Mollrye' (Seymour 1907, 177). The mill depicted standing on the N bank of the Mulkear River, 70m S of Abbey Owney (LI014-014002-) on the 1840 ed. OS 6-inch map may stand on site of or incorporate the remains of a medieval corn mill depicted on the 1656 Down Survey map of Owneybeg barony (NLI, MS 718). This map depicted a cluster of dwellings (LI014-014001-) standing either side of the Mulkear River in close proximity to the ruins of Owneybeg Abbey (LI014-014002-), a stone bridge (LI014-014008-) and the medieval corn mill (ibid.). The mill is depicted standing on the N bank of the Mulkear River in a location similar to the mill depicted on the 1840 ed. OS 6-inch map. The medieval mill is depicted with a large waterwheel on the gable of the corn mill. The terrier of the Down survey map of Abbeyowneybeg parish recorded that in this parish ‘there is an abbey p[ar]te whereof is Thatcht and about thirty Thatch Houses a good Corne Mill and a bridge on the Mannor of Abbeyowthneybegg’ (ibid.). The 1654-56 Civil Survey of Limerick recorded that in the parish of Abbeyowney there was ‘a Mannor Towne wth the priviledge of a Courte Leete and Courte barron. Ye River of Muilcherne leadinge through the said Towne and a stone bridge thereuppon one Mill two fishing weares a Demolished stone house with two Orchards and a garden upon Rath and Cnocknegurteeny’ (Simington 1938, 3).
No surface remains visible of mill structure depicted on the 1840 ed. OS 6-inch map. A water-filled linear ditch visible on Cambridge University aerial photographs taken 1968 to the E of the mill site may be the remains of a mill-race (CUCAP AVQ093). A linear earthwork to the W of the mill site visible in the aerial photograph could also be related to the mill-race.

Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien and Matt Kelleher

Date of upload: 28 June 2017

References

Seymour, Rev. St. J. 1907 Abbey Owney, County Limerick. Journal of the Royal Society of Antiquaries of Ireland 37, 165-80, 360-73.

NLI, MS 718 - National Library of Ireland, Parish maps with terriers, showing forfeited lands in County Limerick, commonly known as the "Down Survey", executed under the direction of Sir William Petty, 1657, and copied by Daniel O'Brien, 1786.

CUCAP - Cambridge University Collection of Aerial Photographs. Unit for Landscape Modelling, Department of Geography, University of Cambridge. See:https://www.cambridgeairphotos.com

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.