mill (water)

Detached double gable-fronted four-bay five story former mill, built c. 1860, incorporating fabric of earlier buildings. Now disused. Three-storey gabled block attached to north-west gable. Pitched slate roofs with roof vents. Limestone walls with red brick dressings to openings. Rendered walls to lower block. Camber-headed openings with limestone sills and remains of timber fittings.

Originally the site of a flour bolting mill, which was built by Samuel Pike in the mid eighteenth century, the large scale five-storey building which now dominates the site dates to the mid nineteenth century. The eighteenth century mill was one of the first in Ireland to use water powered technology to bolt and sift flour. The Shaw family, who operated the mill in the early nineteenth century, produced 25,000 barrels of flour per annum, with the introduction a steam engine in the 1830s. The mill passed to the Punch family c. 1920, and fell into disuse following a fire in 1964. Retaining much fabric, form and character, the building has played a significant role in the social history of the area.