Water mill

The 'Dame's Mills' were located in an island of the Poddle River outside the town gate known as Dam's Gate (DU018-020028-) and whose water was dammed to produce a flow and the mills derived their name from this feature. In 1559 the Dublin Assembly Roll recorded; 'that the treasorrer and masters of wurkes of this cittie shall cause a stone wall to be made without the Damsgate [DU018-020028-], from the gate unto thend of the myll, that no dong [dung] shalbe laid uppon thende of the iland, nor in the towne ditche there, from hensforth' (CARD Vol. 2, 4). Three years later in 1562 the Dublin Assembly Roll recorded; 'that William Foster nowe fermore of the Damys myllis [Dam's Mills], shall have of benevolence of the cittie towardes the reparacion of the archis over the water that runneth into the said myllis under the pavement without the Damys gate twentie shillinges, and he to make the said archis well and substanchiall of lyme and stone, and so to contynue (oblit.) upon his costes and chardges' (CARD Vol. 2, 22). In 1609 Jacob Newman became a tenant of the Damas mills (De Courcy 1996, 112). There were two mills in this area in the 16th century belonging to St Mary's Abbey at the Dissolution (Gilbert 1884, vol. 2, 58; Bradley & King 1987, vol. 1, 39). Clarke has located the mills to the junction of Crane Lane and Dame Street (FMD map 1978, N1). There are no visible surface remains (Clarke 2002, 20 G2). Compiled by: Geraldine Stout Revised by: Caimin O'Brien Date of revised upload: 26 April 2023