Mill at, 30 Botera Upper Road, Omagh, Co. Tyrone, BT78 5LH

Mill at 30 Botera Upper Road, Omagh

A detached two-bay two-storey former mill building, built around 1860, located on the north side of Upper Botera Road. The building is single-storey to the south at the rear due to the topography of the site. It is constructed of coursed rubble with fieldstone quoins and has a pitched natural slate roof with replacement terracotta ridge tiles over brick corbelled eaves. The rectangular plan includes a waterwheel to the south.

The principal elevation faces east. The left bay contains a single window at each floor, flanked on the right by replacement vertically-sheeted double-leaf doors at ground floor level and a single door at first floor level. Each doorway has a red brick surround. The right bay contains a small window at first floor level. Windows throughout are replacement timber-framed fixed glazed units set in stepped red brick surrounds with red brick voussoirs. Cast-iron wall ties are visible. The south gable is blank and is abutted by a mounted cast-iron waterwheel with timber spokes, connected by shaft to the interior machinery. A further wheel is supported on rubble walling adjacent to the south.

The west elevation contains, on the left, a rectangular slit opening at ground floor level and a timber casement window at first floor level, flanked on the right by a small opening with stone lintel. The right bay contains a vertically-sheeted door with brick surround flanked on the right by a single window. The north gable contains various small openings at ground floor level, including a blocked entrance opening, and a timber casement window to the attic.

Internally, the original vaulted structure survives, along with cast-iron mill machinery which is visible on the exterior through the two large wheels. Despite extensive restoration, the presence and survival of these two wheels is most unusual. The building remains an important remnant of the linen industry in the area.

The mill sits within private grounds adjacent to a three-bay two-storey roughcast farmhouse with pitched slate roof to the north and a modern farm building to the south. A free-standing cast-iron water pump stands directly to the east. The site is bounded on the west by hedging and to the river on the east by wire fencing. Rainwater goods are cast-iron.

Historical Development

A building has occupied this site since at least 1833, when the first edition Ordnance Survey map shows a corn kiln and mill ponds. The second edition of 1854 identifies it as a corn mill. By the third and fourth editions the structure was captioned as a flax mill, which appears to correspond to the present building. The Townland Valuation records the earlier building as an "unfinished" corn mill with dimensions of 36 by 19 by 16 feet, occupied by George Buchanan and estimated to have a yearly value of between £10 and £15 when completed. In Griffith's Valuation, John Osborough occupied the mill, leasing it from Charles Scott Buchanan, but its value had not been realised. The valuer noted that the "mill idle at present and has been so for the past 3 years – the machinery is all out of order – there is no water supply apparently." By 1871, the new mill is recorded as a flax mill with a marginal note reading "new scutch mill, three stocks" and its value had risen to £7 15 shillings. By 1910, corn mill stores had been added to the property, raising its valuation to £10.