Ballyclogh Mill (Corn)

On NW bank of Finnow Stream, c. 200m S of Ballyclogh. Ivy-clad ruin of rectangular mill (11.5m N-S; 8m E-W): 3-bay, 3-storey with attic; gable-ended, with collapsing slate roof. Interior has some remains of wooden floors and machinery, all in advanced state of collapse. Wheel-pit (Wth 2.36m), alongside S end of E wall, contains low-breast-shot suspension cast-iron waterwheel (diam. c. 4.6m; Wth 1.9m); iron plaque on wheel reads "W.S. Winey, Cork"; wheel has square wooden shaft and decayed wooden unventilated buckets. Pinion-wheel shaft transfers power from wheel to tall vertical wooden shaft; shaft has date "1816" painted on it. Latter turned cast-iron great spur wheel, which has wooden clasp-arms and cogs. In pile of rubble nearby are stone-nut, spindle and French-burr bedstone. Vertical shaft has gear wheel, cogs facing downwards, at 1st-floor level; above gear wheel shaft is thin metal column, terminating in a bevelled gear wheel. Built against S wall is roofless rectangular grain-drying kiln (6.2m N-S; 6.7m E-W). Only lower courses of central furnace survive; overhead are remains of ceramic kiln-tile floor. Built against S end of W wall of mill is rectangular gabled extension (c. 11.7m E-W; 5.75m N-S): 4-bay, 4-storey; slate roof partially intact; brick-arched opes. Interior has decayed wooden floors; no machinery. Described by Lewis (1837, vol. 1, 129) as 'extensive boulting-mills of Messers. Haines and Smith...giving employment to 25 persons.' The above description is derived from the published 'Archaeological Inventory of County Cork. Volume 4: North Cork' (Dublin: Stationery Office, 2000). In certain instances the entries have been revised and updated in the light of recent research. Date of upload/revision: 14 January 2009