Ruined Windmill

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Ruins of an windmill tower of c.1770, set on a hill top to the south east of the town of Portaferry.

All that remains are the ruined walls, roughly 6.5m in diameter, and constructed in a coarse random rubble, subsequently patched with red brick. Some window bays and recesses for built in rafters (or machinery) still visible, though the apparent castellations at the top of the walls are probably simply a relatively recent deliberate arrangement of the loose stone.

Though now abandoned this ruin is still a very prominent landmark for those approaching Portaferry by road or sea.

Historical information

This windmill was ‘new built’ by Patrick Savage of Portaferry in 1771. In December of that year he leased both this mill along with two other water mills within Portaferry. Originally the windmill drove a pair of stones. In 1833 the Ordinance Survey Memoirs described it thus:‘Windmill in the Townland of Tullyboard, a corn mill, length of sails 60 feet, breadth of centre 8 and a half feet. Thoroughly repaired in the year 1826, belongs to Mr. W. McCleery. Prevailing winds south south west. There is not a sufficiency of work. Diameter of building 15 feet’.

Valuation records of 1838 describe the building as a 'windmill as office' and tell us that there was a further single storey 'office' (i.e. store or outbuilding) beside it. By this stage the mill appears to have ceased to be used for milling purposes. The building was apparently gutted by a fire on Christmas Day 1878. The authors of the UAHS Survey (published 1969) state that it was burned out (?again) in the early 1900s.

References- Primary sources
1 Linen Hall Library 'Belfast News-Letter', 20 Dec. 1771 (available in Linen Hall Library)
2 PRONI D.552/B/3/3/1 Savage/Nugent Papers: ‘A Plan or Map of the Town of Portaferry’ by Patrick O’Hare, 1799 [The
Savage/Nugent Papers contain many documents relating to Portaferry and the surrounding area]
3 Linen Hall Library ‘Pigot & Co.’s Dublin and Hibernian Provincial Directory’ (Manchester 1824)
4 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991)
5 PRONI OS/6/3/32/1 OS maps, 1st ed., 1834, Down sheet 32
6 PRONI VAL/1B/37 1st valuation, Ballyphilip, c.1835-38
7 PRONI VAL/1D/3/4 Valuation town plan of Portaferry, c.1838
8 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1846), pp.520-23
9 PRONI and Linen Hall Library ‘Belfast and Province of Ulster Directory’ Vols.1-21, 1852-1900, (Belfast, Henderson [1852-65], Belfast News-Letter [1865- ])
10 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1856), p.592-95
11 PRONI OS/8/23/1- OS town plan of Portaferry, 1859
12 PRONI Second ('Griffith's') valuation, 1863 [in print]
13 PRONI VAL/12E/112/1- Valuation maps of Portaferry, c.1863, with revisions of 1902
14 Linen Hall Library ‘Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Ireland’ (Manchester 1870), pp.341-43
15 PRONI OS/8/23/2 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1874
16 George Henry Bassett ‘County Down Guide and Directory’ (Dublin 1886)
17 PRONI OS/8/23/3 OS town plan of Portaferry, 1900
18 UFTM WAG 609, 611, 612 W.A. Green Collection, photographs of Portaferry Quay, harbour, Shore Road etc.
19 UM W05/82/3 Welch Collection, photograph of the shore front, Portaferry etc.
20 PRONI VAL/12E/112/2- Valuation maps of Portaferry, 1902, with revisions of 1935

Secondary sources
1 E.R.R. Green, 'The Industrial Archaeology of County Down' (HMSO Belfast, 1963)
2 G. Philip Bell, C.E.B. Brett, Sir Robert Matthew, 'Ulster Architectural Heritage Survey: Portaferry & Strangford'
(Belfast UAHS 1969)
3 Upper Ards Historical Society, 'A Guide to the Places of Interest in Portaferry and the Upper Ards' (Portaferry, ?1995)

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Ruins of an windmill tower of c.1770, set on a hill top.