Ardmore Corn Mill, Ardmore Lodge, 119 Drumsurn Road, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 OPD

Ardmore Corn Mill

A rapidly decaying two-storey stone mill building with a slate roof, standing four metres to the west of Ardmore Lodge. The five-bay structure is constructed of squared sandstone with brick alterations, particularly visible on the south gable. All machinery has been removed, but the pit for the former water wheel and the still-functioning mill race remain, flowing from a mill pond at the Flour Mills 30 metres to the south-east.

The building aligns approximately north-south. The east elevation, facing the rear courtyard of Ardmore Lodge, features a tall blocked-up opening into the former wheel house at the northern end, alongside a door into the wheel house and a high-level opening into the floor above. At first floor to the south are two square openings with a third bricked up in alignment. Similar windows at ground level look into the much lower ground floor of the main mill. The northern gable shows traces of a removed lean-to. The southern gable bears evidence of a pitched extension to the mill which collapsed during recent storms, badly weakening the gable itself. A double door with timber lintel provides low-level access. The rear elevation, propped up at its southern end due to this collapse, has a door from the wheel house with the escaping mill race at the northern end. A door above is blocked up. Towards the south, two square brick-trimmed openings flank a larger double-width door opening at first floor, with a similar arrangement directly below.

To the west and south stand a range of single-storey outbuildings in sandstone and brick, one of which (now badly decayed) was used as a cottage until the 1950s.

The building appears on the 1830 Ordnance Survey map but is not indicated as a mill. It was converted for mill use during the 1840s by Robert Macrory of Ardmore Lodge and initially ground oatmeal. During the Irish famine, Macrory purchased 45 acres of land on loan from the Board of Works and adapted the mill to grind Indian corn. The 1848 map shows the original 1830 building extended southwards with a neighbouring building demolished, described as 'Corn mill and kiln'. By the 1904-6 map, the present arrangement was established with the cottage to the rear, at which point it is noted as 'Corn mill (disused)'. Like Ardmore Flour Mill, the mill's profitability was weakened by the opening of the nearby railway in 1883, and the mill closed in 1900. It is of local interest for its association with former industrial activity and famine relief work.