Windmill Stump, at Windmill Farm, 25 Battery Road, Cookstown, Co Tyrone

Windmill Stump at Windmill Farm, 25 Battery Road, Cookstown

This is a late 18th century disused windmill, built between 1780 and 1799. It consists of a rounded stone base with all original sails removed. The construction detailing is rustic but typical of the genre. Although windmills were common in other parts of northern Ireland such as the Ards peninsula, they were relatively rare in the Cookstown area, where rivers were abundant and mills were generally powered by water. The windmill is of industrial archaeological interest.

The structure has several openings. The North elevation has a small square-headed window at high level. The West elevation has a matching small square-headed slit window grille at mid-level and a square-headed door at ground level. The East elevation has a matching small square-headed window at mid-level. A round-headed door opening at ground floor level has been blocked up with random rubble stone. The South elevation has a small square-headed window at high level. All slit window openings have simple red brick dressings.

The windmill is located to the north of Windmill Farm, a former cluster of houses and farm buildings that have now been removed and replaced by a modern single-storey house. The windmill stands to the south of Battery Road at the end of a long access drive within the Mullaghwotragh townland to the east of Cookstown.

The windmill and a building to the south appear on the Ordnance Survey map of 1832–34. According to historical records, the windmill was built in the late 18th century, as were most surviving windmills in Ulster. The adjacent building was recorded in the 1834 valuation as an old house occupied by William John Bell, rated at £4–6–0. By the 1859 second valuation, William George Thomson is recorded as tenant, with the house and offices rated at £7–10–0. The windmill is not mentioned in subsequent valuations, though it appears to have remained operational into the latter half of the 19th century. By 1884 the property had passed to Robert W. Bell, who acquired the freehold in 1907. A Thompson Bell became owner sometime between 1929 and 1935 and remained in residence in 1957.