Former corn/scutch mill, Carrydarragh Road, Moneymore, Magherafelt

Former Corn and Scutch Mill, Carrydarragh Road, Moneymore

A former corn and scutch mill dating from the 18th century, situated on the south side of Carrydarragh Road beside the Ballymully River. The mill complex comprises several buildings of varying dates and construction.

The main structure is a 2-storey, 2-bay building constructed of coursed red sandstone with a gabled roof covered in corrugated iron. At ground level there is a single door opening, and at first floor a shuttered opening. Adjacent to this is a 1-bay, 1-storey gabled building of stone with a single 12-pane double-hung sliding sash window and corrugated iron roof. A further single-storey building extends at right angles to the main block, measuring 3 bays long with two wide door openings and now used as a garage. This building is largely constructed of concrete block, though one wall is of rubble stone. The gable of the 2-storey element on the mill pond side is largely sheeted with corrugated iron.

The mill is powered by a metal waterwheel of 6 metres diameter, 600mm wide, fitted with shallow buckets and fed from overhead. This wheel was erected approximately 25 years ago. The original roof construction has been lost. The mill is fed by a mill race which runs for more than a mile from the Ballymully River. A mill pond, now largely silted, originally supplied the wheel via a flume, of which remains survive. The tail race also remains, and originally crossed the road. The sluice and flume structures are partly extant. The owner operates a small undershot waterwheel by the river bank which powers a pump supplying water through a 20mm pipe to the mill pond, allowing demonstration revolutions of the large wheel.

Historical records indicate a mill in the townland of Carradarragh was offered for sale in a newspaper cutting of 1755. The Ordnance Survey map of 1832 shows a mill and mill race at this location with its circuitous route from the river. The 1856 Ordnance Survey revision shows a corn mill and kiln here. The mill last operated as a linen scutch mill. Other buildings forming a group, including the present owner's dwelling house, occupy the surrounding site.