Carrick Mills, Ballyquin Road, Terrydremont South, Limavady, Co Londonderry, BT49 9EY

Carrick Mills

Carrick Mills is a substantially surviving pre-1830 industrial barn of nicely proportioned design, situated on Ballyquin Road in Terrydremond South, Limavady. It forms part of a large complex of mill buildings on the River Roe, now incorporated within the Roe Valley Country Park. The exact original function of this particular building remains unclear, though alterations to its fabric indicate that its use changed over time.

The building is a six-bay, two-storey structure with a steeply pitched corrugated asbestos cement roof at 45 degrees. The north-west elevation is constructed in rubble stone to first-floor level, with the stone carrying up to eaves level at the corners. The remainder of the first floor is in brick. Five brick piers, possibly framing former large openings, are visible; these have now been filled in with brick. On the four central bays, small window openings can be seen, with the two central windows shuttered and the other two blocked up. At ground level are three formerly large openings, irregularly spaced, which have been reduced in size with brick and subsequently blocked up.

The north-west gable, facing the river, displays a fine symmetrical composition. Steps rise over an external arch to a central door at first-floor level, finished with a Gothic arch head and flanked by two bricked-up window openings, also with Gothic arches. Above, centrally placed, is a rectangular opening. This gable is constructed in rubble stone with some brick repairs near the roof. The south-west elevation is similar to the north-east, featuring brick piers on stone with bricked-up openings and smaller openings blocked up. The south-east gable has a massive entrance door rising to eaves level and occupying half the width of the façade, trimmed in brick. The gable wall above has been completely rebuilt in brick; rusting steelwork for a former sliding door remains visible. The present door is much smaller and recently constructed from corrugated metal.

The interior structure is of particular interest, resting on brick piers with unusual care taken in the design of pointed windows on the riverside gable.

The complex formerly functioned as a flax mill, flour mill, corn mill, corn kiln, scutch mill, retting mill and associated buildings. Before this, some buildings comprised part of a bleach mill. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs record the "Tullydremond Flax Mills" on the property of William Moody, describing a bucking house with an engine and drying loft under the same roof. A breast wheel measuring fourteen and a half feet in diameter, three feet four inches across the buckets, is noted as "the largest and best wheel on the water in the parish" with a fall of 10 feet. The bleach mill had ceased working five years before the survey. A second mill operated in the old engine house, with a breast wheel 11 feet in diameter and 16 inches across the bucket, with an 11-foot fall. The present flour mill is marked as "Flax mill" on the 1830 Ordnance Survey Map. The 1848 map shows the buildings largely unchanged. The retting mill and its chimney first appeared on the 1905 map. The 1858 Griffiths Valuation describes the mills in Terrydremont South as "Flour mill and store, millers house, offices and land", leased by Andrew Given from Thomas Scott, with buildings valued at £36.

This particular building (Industrial Heritage Record Reference 1679 HB02/08/033A) is a relatively small structure on the southern part of the group, at some distance from the remainder. It is presently used as a barn. To the north-west stands the former retting mill with remains of water tanks on the roof and an engine room with a tall brick chimney, which forms a notable landmark in the landscape. To the north, at a lower level and nearer the river, lies the long flour mill complex.