Ruined Windmill, Windmill Hill, Tullyboard, Portaferry, Co Down

Ruins of a windmill tower dating to around 1770, situated on a hilltop to the south-east of Portaferry town. The surviving structure consists of ruined walls approximately 6.5 metres in diameter, built of coarse random rubble that has been subsequently patched with red brick. Window bays and recesses for built-in rafters or machinery remain visible in the walls. The apparent castellations at the top of the walls are likely a relatively recent arrangement of loose stone rather than original features. Despite its ruined state, the windmill remains a prominent landmark for those approaching Portaferry by road or sea.

The windmill was newly built by Patrick Savage of Portaferry in 1771, and in December that year Savage leased this mill along with two other water mills within the town. Originally the windmill drove a pair of grinding stones. By 1833, the Ordnance Survey Memoirs described it as a corn mill with sails 60 feet in length and a centre breadth of 8 and a half feet. It had been thoroughly repaired in 1826 and was then owned by Mr W. McCleery. The memoirs noted prevailing winds from the south-south-west and recorded that there was insufficient work to keep the mill in full operation. The building measured 15 feet in diameter at this date. Valuation records from 1838 refer to it as a 'windmill as office' and indicate there was a further single-storey outbuilding or store beside it. By this stage the mill had apparently ceased to function for milling purposes. The building was gutted by fire on Christmas Day 1878, and was burned out again in the early 1900s according to the Ulster Architectural Heritage Survey published in 1969.