Felin Carnau Tide Mill

Cadw's description

Summary description and reason for designation

The following provides a general description of the Scheduled Monument.

The monument consists of a particularly complex early tidemill, a type of watermill powered by retaining seawater at high tide and then releasing it at low tide via the water wheel. The tide was an important source of power for grinding corn from the early modern period until well into the industrial revolution, used in islands and peninsulas with insufficient drainage for conventional water mills. In Anglesey, tide mills were of importance to the local economy from the sixteenth century and Melin Carnau may well date from this period, the only known documentary reference to it being in 1666.

Unlike other mills which are near the shore and connected to straight dams across narrow inlets, Melin Carnau was built on a small island, with dams in either direction from it across a small bay. The mill platform is visible as low stone foundations, with the remains of a channel on its west side and the hexagonal collar of an iron wheel. The dam walls can be perceived as scatters of stones through the sand, in four sections connecting three separate rock outcrops to one another and to the shore.

The monument is of national importance as a rare and complex example of an early tide mill site and for its potential to enhance our knowledge of early 16th to 19th century industrial practices. It retains significant archaeological potential, with a strong probability of the presence of associated archaeological features and deposits. The structure itself may be expected to contain archaeological information concerning chronology and building techniques.

The scheduled area comprises the remains described and areas around them within which related evidence may be expected to survive.