Former Mill, 6c Cunningburn Road, Cunningburn, Newtownards, Co Down, BT22 2AR

Cunningburn Mill is a group of houses picturesquely situated in a hollow roughly 1 mile NW of the Mount Stewart estate. Some of the houses are converted mill related buildings and almost all have been renovated/converted recently. This is possibly the most interesting of the whole group as it is a rubble built former water powered corn mill dating from 1776. It is currently undergoing conversion to living accommodation. The former mill is ‘split level’ and is situated slightly to the SW of the thatched house. The front NE facade has a doorway with stone dressings, but no proper door as yet. To the left of this are three window openings with recently installed timber casement windows. To the right of the doorway is a slightly larger opening set at a low level with stone dressings. This opening was probably once a small door but is now filled with a timber window with ‘Georgian’ panes. Above the window is an inscribed stone which states ‘AD 1776 W. HARRIS MILLER’. To the right of this window the earth has been excavated revealing more of the wall below the window level, in which there is a crudely fashioned (presumably unfinished) opening. The NW gable is two storey with a casement window (similar to front) to the upper level. The lower level once held the water wheel and though this has been removed the arched opening for the axle remains. This gable merges with the side of a full height lean to extension (also built of rubble) which appears to be c.1860s and once house housed an engine. There is a large ‘unfinished opening to the ground level of the lean to. The SE gable of the main building is blank. The left half of the rear is taken up with the lean to former engine house, which has a large flat arched opening to the ground level of its SE face. The upper level of the right half of the original mill has two casement windows, as front. To the ground level is a large opening with a segmental arch head and stone dressings. The keystone is inscribed ‘1776 BT. BY. A. S.’. There is a small square opening to the right of the arch. The gabled roof of the mill is in the process of being covered in Bangor blue slates and has a small brick chimney stack to the SE. There is a similar stack on the roof of the former engine house. The entire mill building is unrendered.