Carrickhugh Flour Mill

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Three storey stone mill complex with natural slate roofs and attached boiler house with brick chimney.

There are four main components to the building: A four bay structure aligning east west approximately parallel to Clooney Road fifty metres to the south. Joined to the west end there is a three bay wide structure of similar height but projecting two metres to the south. (walls to the north align). To the north a two storey building one bay wide adjoins the second structure. Their east facades align. To the north the boiler house adjoins the third building. Its projecting chimney aligns with the west facade of the third structure. Its east facade projects a metre and a half beyond the others.

A large modern opening two storeys high has been opened in the west gable of the first structure. This has timber sheeted doors to the barn behind. The approach road passes this entrance and goes to the north side of the building past a loading bay in the arm of the ‘L’ between the first and third buildings. At third floor level the remains of a walkway crosses the corner between the first and third buildings. A sliding door at ground level gives access from the loading bay to the third building. The stone of the building abuts the tapering brick chimney as it rises. The mill wheel for the complex was located on the east gable of the second structure. A deep pit remains for wheel of 4.5 metres diameter . A raised mill race carried water from ponds, passed under road and delivered water to wheel by wooden flume. Two mill ponds to feed the complex were located on the southern side of Clooney Road, one has now been filled in. A date stone is located near a brick arch on the west gable of the boiler house it reads ‘1861’.

A single pitched roof covers the first two structures aligning east west. A second pitched roof in bad condition covers the third structure. A lean-to pitched roof covers the storey and a half high boiler house.

Historical information

Described in 1830-35 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Faughanvale Parish as: ‘an excellent flour mill on the side of mail coach road between Londonderry and Newtownlimavady… the property of Mr Jacob Levingston. It is double geared and worked by a breast wheel 18 feet in diameter and four feet broad. As the supply of water is not good in dry weather, the deficiency has been remedied by a steam engine of 12 horse-power which commenced working a few days since.’ The mill became the property of George Cather (see HB02/02/001) in the 1840s on land still leased from the Fishmongers Company. He seems to have improved the mill as evidenced by the 1861 date stone on the boiler house. The present owner told us that a gas engine powered by anthracite was used to power the mill in later years. The Cather family rented out the farm and buildings after the turn of the century, but the mill continued in operation for various uses until after the Second World War, (when it was used for corn grinding). It was bought along with the rest of the farm by the present owner's family in 1948. The mill equipment was the property of the last lessor and this was removed for scrap. In addition to the branch line from Carrickhugh Station to the Corn Mill (HB02/02/006) lower down the hill, there was a narrow gauge railway between the flour mill and the corn mill now removed. The buildings have been converted by the present owner to farm use.

References:

The Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol. 36. P. 21.
Limavady and the Roe Valley by Rev T H Mullan p.91.
Industrial Archaeology Record Ref: 1434:3
Owner (1998).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

A picturesque mill building in a valley below Clooney Road just before it enters Walworth Forest. South elevation seen from road is reasonably regular and combined with the tower behind is a strong form in the landscape. The building is one of an industrial group of mills connected with the nearby Carrichue House (HB02/02/001). From a historical point of view the building is interesting for unlike other mills in the area, its main period of production seems to have been after the coming of the railway rather than before. (By contrast see the flour mill at Ardmore HB02/08/016.) The chimney construction on both mills to take a supplementary steam engine for more power can be seen as evidence of the need for increased production.
The building however has been gutted inside and is not sufficiently important to list.