What is recorded here

Muileann Iarn, meaning iron mill, still names the Cartron field where a blast furnace once breathed fire. Men may have hammered hot metal beside the water before round openings disappeared under soil and forgetting. Slag recovered nearby at the National Museum of Ireland confirms that the ground kept its own record. The farm replaced the factory, but the name preserved the shape of the lost work.

This field is known locally as ‘Muileann Iarn’ (iron mill) and suggests the former presence of a metal-working site here. There formerly were ‘holes or round openings’ in the field which the landowner’s father had filled in to improve the land. A number of pieces of slag were recovered from a field c. 440m to the NE (ITM coordinates 544754, 800975) in 2003: these are considered to have come from a blast furnace and are in the National Museum of Ireland (pers. comm. A. Halpin). There are no structures or features indicated on the OS 1st. ed. 6-inch map (surveyed 1837) in this field which would suggest that the site had long been abandoned by the early 19th century: the possibility that it dates to the 17th century cannot be ruled out. Compiled by: Paul Walsh Date of upload: 5 November 2012

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