Ballygowan Mill, Benagh Road, Kilkeel, Newry, Co Down, BT34 4SQ

Ballygowan Mill

This corn mill and kiln complex stands on the west side of the Greencastle Road near Kilkeel, Co Down. Although the structures are essentially of mid-19th century date, the mill is of evolutionary note in that it encompasses what is undoubtedly an 18th century mill. The complex comprises two separate buildings with various internal alterations and too few surviving technical features to merit listing.

The corn mill is a three-storey building aligned north-south, cut into a west-facing slope so that it appears only two storeys high on its east elevation. The ground floor of the southern half has been subsequently infilled. It has a pitched natural slate roof with brick verges but no rainwater goods. The walls are of random Silurian rubble with flush granite quoins. The east and west walls instep between first and second floor; on the south gable, larger stones appear to have been used to form the top storey, suggesting that the top floor is a later addition. The principal elevation faces east into the farmyard and contains a large entrance at left with a segmental brick relieving arch, which at ground level externally actually leads into the first floor. A small loading door sits at right on the floor above. The south gable is blank. The west elevation has a small door at ground floor left, with a small window to its immediate right where a piece of discarded millstone is used as a lintel. A window sits at first floor and two at second floor (the one at top right is infilled with brick). The north gable contains a comparatively large opening at first floor with a metal lattice window, almost certainly a more recent insert.

The kiln is a three-storey, two-bay building aligned east-west with a replacement pitched natural slate roof fitted with half-round plastic gutters and timber fascia boards. Its walls are of random Silurian rubble brought to courses with flush stepped granite quoins. The principal elevation faces north into the farmyard and contains two sliding corrugated metal doors at ground floor, with the remainder of the wall blank. On the east gable, external concrete stairs rise to a first floor opening at the centre, which contains a tongue-and-groove sheeted door with brickwork jambs and concrete cill, suggesting a later insert. A small window opening sits at second floor level. The south elevation has small window openings at ground floor left and right. The west gable is abutted by a one-storey byre; at ground floor level is a brick-infilled window opening and a small window opening at first floor.

Historical records show a corn mill on this site by 1834. In 1838, it belonged to Eliza McIlroy and measured 51 feet by 20 feet 6 inches by 7 feet. The Ordnance Survey Memoir of around the same date describes the mill as "old and single geared". By 1861, the mill, then in the possession of Hugh McElroy, had been heightened and its grinding capacity doubled, measuring 15 yards by 6 yards by two storeys (20 feet). A 20-foot by 4-foot waterwheel drove two pairs of stones, almost certainly in great spurwheel configuration. A kiln was noted in the adjoining townland of Ballymadeerfy to the north, though no evidence of this remains. A steam-powered flax mill is recorded from 1895 onwards but its whereabouts is now unknown. The flax mill ceased work in 1904, though corn milling appears to have persisted until well after the First World War. The complex is now used as farm buildings.