Ballybryan Windmill

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Ruined stump of a four level windmill pre 1777 windmill set in the middle of a field on a rise roughly half a mile south of Greyabbey.

Most of the rubble built tower remains, though the cap has disappeared along with most of the exterior appendages. There are two ground level doorways with segmental arch heads, both now partly blocked, with a square recess above the S doorway which may once have contained a date plaque. There are a number of upper level openings, some of which now have damaged dressings. Remains of a small extension to E ‘side’. Remnants of cast iron cog track at top of stump, on which cap must have turned. Sections of this track have fallen off and are at base of stump. The mill appears to have been finished in rough cast at one time, elements of which are still visible.

The stump measures roughly 10.5m in height x 5.8m in diameter.

Historical information

This former corn mill is indicated on Taylor and Skinner’s road map of this area, compiled in the 1770s, and noted on James Williamson’s map of 1810. It appears to have served as an auxiliary to the nearby Bootown water mill.

References- Primary sources
1 'Taylor’s and Skinner’s Maps of the roads of Ireland' (Dublin, 1777), map 10 [Copy available in PRONI library.]
2 PRONI D.616 James Williamson’s ‘Maps of the County of Down’
3 PRONI OS/6/3/12/1 Ordnance Survey Maps, 1834, Co. Down 12
3 PRONI VAL/1B/33 1st valuation, Greyabbey, c.1834-38
4 'Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II', ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), pp.67-72 [c.1834]
5 PRONI VAL/2B/3/4 Second valuation, Greyabbey, c.1859
6 PRONI OS/6/3/12/2 Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st Revision, c.1860 Co. Down 12
7 PRONI VAL/12B/23/16a-f Annual valuation revision books, Greyabbey, 1866-1930

Secondary sources
1 E.R.R. Green 'The Industrial Archaeology of County Down' (HMSO, 1963), p.54

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Ruined windmill stump of eighteenth century origin with some remains of milling machinery inside.