Mill, Mill Bay, Rathlin Island

Mill, Mill Bay, Rathlin Island

This is an early 19th-century water-powered corn mill, probably built sometime after 1811 and possibly altered or partly rebuilt between 1838 and 1856. It sits at the south-east end of Mill Bay in the townland of Kinkeel, ingeniously positioned at the foot of a steep escarpment and as close as possible to the shoreline in order to maximise the head of water available to the waterwheel — though in practice the full potential was never realised. It is one of only two corn mills on Rathlin Island and by far the better preserved; the other, in Ballycarry townland, survives only as ruinous foundations.

The building is a single-bay, single-storey structure aligned north to south, roofed in natural slate with clay ridge tiles and brick eaves and gable copings. Some slates on the east-facing slope have become dislodged. There are no rainwater goods. The walls are built of random rubble basalt with a small admixture of rubble limestone; the quoins are of squared basalt, with some limestone examples among them. All openings have flat timber heads, and the windows have no cills. The materials throughout are entirely authentic, with no later replacements.

The south gable carries the entrance at its left end, fitted with a replacement sheeted timber door; the rest of this elevation is blank. The west elevation, which faces seaward, has several courses of random rubble limestone beneath the brick eaves. There are two window openings on this face: one at top left, which lights a stone floor inside, and one in the middle. The upper opening has been infilled with rubble stone and the middle one with brick. The east elevation is partly cut into the hillside; the exposed section has no openings.

The north gable originally carried an external waterwheel, of which only the narrow stone-lined wheel pit survives, largely filled with debris. The wheel itself is gone apart from its cast-iron axle. The axle opening through the gable is now obscured by infill. A small square hole at the top left of this gable was originally for the shaft used to operate the sluice gate. A larger blind rectangular recess at the bottom right gave access to the back of the inner rim of the wheel, allowing workers to adjust the tensioning of the tie rods that held the rims together.

The mill was supplied by a small stream from the east, which passed through a masonry culvert under the road and along the top of a built-up rubble headrace wall, from which water was delivered to the wheel by a timber trough. After passing through the wheel, the water was culverted out to the shore. The headrace wall has partly collapsed and the trough is long gone. Water now flows along the bypass channel at the start of the headrace and is culverted directly to the shore.

The mill stands on a grassy area just above the rocky shoreline, at the base of a steep slope, with the road running above. The ruinous remains of an associated rubble masonry corn-drying kiln are visible at the junction of the road and the access track leading down to the mill. From here there are good views northward to the kelp store and Church Bay.

Historical records place the mill firmly in the landscape from at least the early 19th century. It is explicitly marked on the first edition Ordnance Survey map of 1832–33. The 1834 Valuation records that the mill and the adjacent corn-drying kiln belonged to the Reverend Robert Gage, the local landowner, and noted that water was available for nine months of the year. The 1838 Ordnance Survey Memoir describes it as the only corn mill on the island and the entirety of its machinery, situated close to the shore in Kinkeel townland and driven by a breast waterwheel 12 feet in diameter and 1 foot 10 inches broad. The mill appears again on the 1856 Ordnance Survey map. The 1859 Valuation records its operator still as Reverend Gage and provides more detail: the mill contained a single pair of millstones driven by a breast-shot metal waterwheel measuring 15 feet in diameter by 1 foot 8 inches wide, with 36 buckets each 8 inches deep. Although the potential head of water was 18 feet, the actual fall made use of was only 7 feet. The water supply was described as good, and during the winter months — November to May — the mill operated for two days per week. Its rateable valuation was £8 10s 0d, of which £6 10s 0d was attributed to the waterpower.

The fact that the 1859 wheel was 3 feet larger in diameter than the one described in 1838, and was made of metal rather than wood, raises the possibility that it was a replacement of a slightly smaller wooden original. If so, a second set of stones may have been installed at the same time, though there is no confirmatory evidence for this. It is also possible that the mill itself was partly rebuilt between 1838 and 1856 — the brick quoins around the windows are consistent with mid-19th-century construction practice — but again there is no firm evidence to test this proposition.

Reverend Gage died in 1862 and the mill passed to his eldest son Robert. On Robert's death in 1891 it was taken over by his younger brother Major General Ezekiel Gage, who ran it until his own death in 1906. Thereafter the valuation books record the mill's owners as Ezekiel's representatives, acting as agents for his four sons. Both the 1904 and 1922 Ordnance Survey maps explicitly caption the corn mill and its associated kiln to the north, suggesting that the mill remained operational under Ezekiel's successors. By 1934, however, it appears to have fallen out of use.

In 1944, following a visit to the island by Viscount Brooke, Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, the islanders petitioned for a grant to build a new mill. The government was unwilling to provide the full 100% grant requested, and the matter was eventually resolved when a Mr Tony McCorraig privately purchased a tractor and milling equipment powered by it. The old mill was never reinstated. It is now a derelict ruin, stripped of all internal machinery.

The mill is of significant importance to the history of the island's farming community. Before imported flour became available, it was the means by which oats — the principal cereal grown on the island — were milled into oatmeal and animal feed. It is regarded as being of industrial archaeological interest and is notable for its rarity, age, authenticity, and historical importance to the local community. The listing covers the mill itself together with the headrace, culvert, and associated walling.