Ballycopeland Windmill

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Faithfully restored and fully operational four storey windmill, on the N side of the Moss Road, roughly one mile W of Millisle.

Measuring c.10.2m in height (to the curb), 6.8m in diameter, with walls c.0.75m in thickness, the windmill consists of a tapering tower finished in rough cast with six small windows and two ground floor doorways.

There is a flue to the S at first floor level, which carries the husks to a rubble built dust house attached to the ground floor of the tower.

The roof is lead sheeted with sails and fan tail.

To the S of the windmill is a long single storey building, which was once the miller’s house, drying kiln etc., much of which has been restored and is now in use as a visitor centre and museum.

This is the only windmill still in operation in Co. Down.

Comprehensive plans of the windmill and its internal workings are provided in E.R.R. Green’s 'The industrial archaeology of Co. Down' (HMSO 1963) p.53, fig. 3.

Historical information

This windmill was constructed some time around c.1785, possibly by one George Bennett. Some time around c.1835 the mill came into the possession of the McGilton family who worked it until its closure in 1915.

It came into the care of the Northern Ireland government in the 1950s and was fully restored. Today the Ballycopeland Windmill is open to the public and remains in working order, the only fully operational windmill in Co.Down. The miller’s house and drying kiln, to the south, have been tastefully converted to house visitor centre and museum.

References- Primary sources
1 PRONI VAL 1B/32 Valuation records for the townland of Ballycopeland (Parish of Donaghadee), early 1830s.
2 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps 1st Edition 1833/4, Co. Down 6.
3 Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland Vol.7: Parishes of County Down II, ed. Angelique Day and Patrick McWilliams (QUB 1991), p. 49.
4 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps 1st Revision 1858-60, Co. Down 6.
5 PRONI ‘Griffith’s’ Valuation records of the townland of Ballycopeland (Parish of Donaghadee) 1863.

Secondary sources
1 E.R.R. Green 'The industrial archaeology of Co. Down' (HMSO 1963) p.53, fig. 3 (including plans of the windmill).
2 'Historic monuments of Northern Ireland' (HMSO 1983), pp.109-111 (including a cutaway drawing of the windmill).
3 Grace Seymour 'Echoes of Millisle and district', (Rathfriland ?c.1983), pp.55-57, 65-66.
4 Environment and Heritage Service SMR DOW 006:500

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Four storey windmill of the 1780s, faithfully restored in fairly recent times and now fully operational.