Old Mill, Dundonald Old Mill, 231 Belfast Road, Killarn, Dundonald, Co. Down, BT16 1UE

Dundonald Old Mill is a rubble-built, two-storey complex arranged in a T-shaped plan, comprising a former mill, kiln house, and miller's house. The complex originated as a bleach works in 1752 and was converted to a corn mill at some point between approximately 1835 and 1858. It stands to the north of the Belfast Road, less than one mile east of Dundonald, within the townland of Killarn. The buildings have been converted to a shop and restaurant, though much of the former milling machinery survives intact.

The former kiln house is two storeys in height and forms the southern part of the T-shaped grouping, with its gable end facing south towards the Belfast Road. On its east facade is a large segmental arch-headed opening, now filled with a modern timber-sheeted and glazed door with large sidelights and a fanlight. To the right of this, set at a higher level, are three square window openings with modern single-pane frames. The mill building intersects the kiln house at a right angle, with the large water wheel positioned on the south facade of the mill building. The wheel measures approximately 10 metres in diameter, has been fully restored and is in working order, currently powered by an electric motor, though it is hoped that water power will be reinstated. The cast iron pipe that originally carried water from the higher ground to the north-east has also been restored. The south facade of the mill building rises into a gable, with two window openings with single-pane frames just beneath the gable on the right side, and a similar window at ground floor level beneath these. Because the ground rises to the north and east of the mill building, both the east gable and north facade read as single storey from those aspects. The east gable contains a tall central window with an elliptical arch head, now filled with stained glass.

On the west facade of the former kiln house, the window openings appear to have been altered in recent times, with evidence of patching to the rubble wall at various points. On the ground floor of this facade, to the far left, is a timber-sheeted door. To the right of this are four irregularly spaced single-pane windows. At the far right of this facade is a large opening with an arch head that is neither fully segmental nor pointed but somewhere between the two, now filled with a large timber-framed window of six large panes and a timber-sheeted apron panel. On the first floor, to the far left, are three single-pane windows matching those below. Some of the smaller windows on this facade have brick dressings. Above the doorway to the far left is a carved stone panel inscribed 'Hugh Barnett Merchant in Belfast 1752'. Attached to the north end of the former kiln house is the two-storey miller's house, which is slightly taller than the kiln house and is probably contemporary with the rest of the complex.

The roofs of both the mill building and the kiln house are gabled and covered with Bangor blue slates, with various skylights in both roof planes. The facades of both buildings are largely unrendered, with the exception of a section around the doorway on the east elevation of the kiln house, which is finished in roughcast. To the north-east, the ground has been landscaped and a set of modern steps leads up to the higher level at the rear of the mill building and house. A glasshouse has been erected in this area to the rear, housing a small garden centre.

The stone panel recording 'Hugh Barnett Merchant in Belfast 1752' marks the year the bleach mill was established. Hugh Barnett, one of the Barnetts of Barnett's Park, died around 1755, and the mill passed to his son James. In 1757, James Barnett advertised the complex to let, describing it at that time as having 'a good spring to supply the wash mill, led from the fountain in pipes round the boiling house, with a large drying loft, wash mill, beetling engine, two large furnaces with keeves and racks and all other bleaching utensils, with a good dwelling house, all new and slated.' The mill was then bleaching 1,200 pieces yearly. By 1773, two new slate cabins had been built for mill workers, though the site's productivity brought difficulties: the Barnetts had neglected to build a watch house, and linen was regularly stolen from the green. In 1773, five pieces were stolen from the loft of the mill itself, prompting local notables to pledge £110 towards the conviction of the thieves.

The grouping appears on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1834. By that time the buildings were in the possession of William Stitt, who resided in Comber. The valuation records of 1833 mention a dwelling house, office, boiler house, and stables. Stitt also held a flax mill in the nearby townland of Carrowreagh to the north, and the Ordnance Survey memoirs note that there were further buildings just to the north-east of the miller's house, possibly the mill workers' cabins of 1773 or the stables. Around 1850 the complex was acquired by a Newtownards baker named Munce, who converted the buildings to a corn mill and kiln. Milling continued until the 1920s. From approximately the 1960s until around 1986, the mill buildings were used as dog kennels. In 1987 and 1988 the entire complex was renovated and converted to a shop and restaurant, with the miller's house apparently serving as a store.