What is recorded here

Ballyine holds two mill structures and a west field scattered with ancient iron slag and furnace bottoms. Scholars still debate whether the mills ground grain or worked metal, because fragments of millstone emerged beside the smoking remains of smelting. The place likely served both hunger and toolmaking, forcing people to carry heavy grain and hot iron across the same valley.

In his report on the two mill-structures discovered in 1959 (LI028-118---; LI028-119---), Walsh also noted 'considerable evidence of ancient iron-smelting- slag and furnace-bottoms- in the field west of that in which the above structures were discovered' (Walsh 1965, 24). Rynne (1998, 82-3) compared the Ballyine mill with a number of iron-working mills in England, though the recovery of two fragments of millstone from Ballyine suggests that this was a grain mill. Compiled by: Denis Power Date of upload: 26 August 2011

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.