Water mill - horizontal-wheeled

The National Monuments Service's description

On a stream (Wth 1.2m) close to the NE end of Mannin Lough, in an overgrowth-covered area adjacent to a farmyard. Much of the adjoining land to E−NE is under forestry.
A mill, named ‘Corn Mill’, is depicted as a rectangular building straddling the stream on the 1838 and 1917 OS 6-inch maps. A ‘Mill dam’ is shown immediately to E on the 1838 map but not on the 1917 edition, which shows a ‘Mill Race’ with two ‘Sluices’.
There is now no trace of the mill building at ground level. According to local information, it was still intact in the early 20th-century. Remains of a mill race, now largely silted-up, can still be seen; a narrow stone slab spanning the mill race may be the remnant of a sluice. A broken millstone (diam. 1.27m; T 0.1m; central perforation diam. 0.15) lies on the ground surface adjacent to the mill race, and according to local information, there are other millstones nearby, either buried or obscured by overgrowth. A ruined rectangular stone building (9.9m NE–SW; 3.8m NW-SE) located a few meters to N, is said to be where the corn was dried before milling.
Knox (1906-07, 265-266) recorded a working corn mill here, powered by a horizontal water-wheel. He noted that in Connacht such mills were known as ‘gig-mills’: ‘The mill is about 20 feet long [6m], by 10 feet wide [3m]. The water tunnel, about 6 feet wide [1.8m], is at the east end of the mill, which lies east and west across the stream. The wheel is modern, but on the old principle.’ It seems likely that this mill dates to the modern era.

Compiled by: Jane O’Shaughnessy

Date of upload: 25 May 2022

References

Knox, H.T. 1906-7 Notes on gig-mills and drying kilns near Ballyhaunis, Co. Mayo. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 26C, 265-73.