Survey Data
Reg No
15403134
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Social, Technical
Original Use
Mill (water)
Historical Use
Mill (water)
In Use As
Outbuilding
Date
1780 - 1840
Coordinates
230479, 241575
Date Recorded
17/10/2004
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Tuck mill complex on L-shaped plan, built c.1800, comprising a main two-bay three-storey mill building having a three-storey return to the north and a two-storey ancillary structure attached to the west side. Later in use as a corn mill (Ordnance Survey Map 1914), and now out of use. Pitched natural slate roof to main building (south) having projecting eaves course and cast-iron rainwater goods. Pitched corrugated roof to rear return with a projecting eaves course and with a rubble stone chimneystack to north gable. Pitched corrugated metal roof to building attached to the west. Coursed rubble limestone walls with whitewashed lime render over, now failing in places, with square-headed openings having timber sheeted doors and half-doors. Window fittings now gone. Set back from road in own grounds with former mill race running north-to-south to the west side of the complex and with a two-storey former miller’s house/farmhouse (154031336) to the east. Located to the northeast of Horseleap and to the west of Ballinagore.
Appraisal
An appealing former tuck and corn mill that forms part of an interesting and significant pair of vernacular structures with the former mill owner's house/farmhouse (15403135) to the east. This building is robustly constructed and has a strong vernacular character on account of the unrefined rubble stone construction and the small window openings. This mill probably dates to the late eighteenth or early nineteenth-century, which was a period of relatively prosperity in rural Ireland, but it could be earlier. The rear return to the main structure was added sometime later, probably during the mid-to-late nineteenth-century (map information). This structure was in use as a tuck mill, engaged in the beating and/or cleaning of cloth, in the early nineteenth-century (map 1837). It was later in use as a corn mill (map 1914). It is in good structural order, despite being no longer in use, and is an attractive feature in the rural landscape to the west of Ballinagore. The ancillary structures and boundary walls to site complete the setting.