Flour Mill — Greatconnell

In level pasture at the W foot of a low rise, 200m E of the River Liffey. Augustinian Abbey/Priory (KD023-016----) founded in 1202 by Meyler Fitzhenry and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary and St David (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 154, 177). The monastery was suppressed on the 24th of November 1540 and the monastic estate including a medieval mill was described as following; 'Robert Wesley (presumably the last prior) was granted a pension of over £13, five other canons smaller amounts; the jurors found that all the buildings were standing as at the time of dissolution; the body of the church had been the parish ch[urch] from time immemorial, the chancel and the chapel of B.M. [Blessed Mary] to the north of it could be demolished, but the belfry could be converted into a castle or fortilage to defend the town (KD023-016004-) and district by the farmer who would need all other buildings, etc., on the 4-acre site; there was a dovecote (KD023-016003-) on the town walls (KD023-016005-), the demesne being 131 acres, and the possessions included over 1,260 acres, a mill (KD023-016006-), five castles, many messuages and cottages' (White 1943, 157; Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 177). The monastic estate was granted to Edward Randolfe and in reversion to Sir Edw. Butler, and re-granted in 1560 to Sir Nicholas White: and to Sir Edmond Butler in 1566' (Gwynn and Hadcock 1970, 177). The E gable of the Lady Chapel of the Augustinian abbey was incorporated into the E and S walls of a post-1700 graveyard (KD023-016001-). The 'Flour Mill' standing on a mill-race 240m to the SW of the abbey graveyard may have been built on the site of the medieval mill and may have reused the medieval mill-race still visible in the fields to the S and SW of the abbey. One of two mills (KD023-016010-) in the townland of Greatconnell listed in the 1654-56 Civil Survey of Co. Kildare (Simington 1952, 129). Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien Date of upload: 24 April 2019