Corn Mill, Ballymagart Mill, Ballyardle Road, Kilkeel, Newry, Co. Down, BT34 4JX

Ballymagart Mill is a substantial corn mill in an attractive rural setting, forming part of a larger industrial grouping on Ballyardle Road in Kilkeel. The complex is of particular interest for its massive waterwheel and intact interior arrangements.

The mill comprises a corn mill and threshing mill positioned either side of a large waterwheel, with an associated kiln and other industrial buildings on the site. The corn mill is a three-storey, single-bay structure with a pitched natural slate roof and no rainwater goods. Walls are constructed of roughly squared granite rubble brought to courses, with a ragged edge to the left and right gables. The left gable shows traces of edging suggesting an additional bay that was never commenced.

The principal elevation features a wide sliding corrugated metal door at ground floor centre, set beneath a long one-piece granite lintel, flanked by cast-iron framed windows in openings formed by granite posts and lintels, with original wrought-iron security bars. Three openings aligned vertically occupy each upper floor. At first floor left is a single tongue-and-groove sheeted door with iron straps hanging below, intended for a wooden chute now gone. The remaining upper floor openings are windows, each comprising 2x4 steel-framed casements with granite cills and brick dressings. Four cast-iron wall plates sit between ground and first floors. The left gable is faced as the main elevation but with brick stretcher courses between each floor; infilled door openings appear at the centre of each floor. The rear wall contains two openings per floor at either end; those at ground and first floor right are infilled, whilst the remainder are metal-framed as on the principal facade. The right gable is largely blank but contains a hole for the waterwheel axle.

The threshing mill is a two-storey, single-bay structure with a pitched natural slate roof, part of which has been replaced with corrugated iron to the rear. Walls are constructed of uncoursed granite rubble with a brick eaves course. The principal elevation has four brick-dressed openings to each floor: at ground floor left and right are doorways with two windows between them, each a cast-iron 4x3 pane fixed window. A loading door occupies first floor right, with three window openings to the left above the ground floor openings. The left gable is blank except for an opening to receive the waterwheel axle, surmounted by a relieving arch, and the bull-nut axle. The rear elevation is blank. The right gable contains a single window at first floor centre. Ground level rises to the rear.

The waterwheel is positioned between the gables of both buildings with a rear wall but no front wall or roof. The rear wall is of rubble construction, two storeys high, with earth banked up to first floor level externally. A doorway and segmental-headed opening at first floor accommodates a pipe from the millpond above.

The wheel itself is a high breastshot design, measuring 7.38 metres (24 feet 3 inches) in diameter by 1.87 metres (6 feet 2 inches) wide. It features a cast-iron axle resting on granite blocks (each measuring 2 x 0.5 x 0.5 metres) and hubs, with twelve timber arms braced by diagonal wrought-iron straps. The cast-iron rim contains forty-eight curved iron buckets. A cast-iron segment wheel is affixed to the left arms (as viewed from front), connecting via a small cast-iron bull-nut and axle to the corn mill. A small section of curtain wall contains an opening into the gear area.

Water is taken from the Whitewater River at a sloping masonry weir erected just below the bridge on Newry Road, conveyed along a race to the mill pond immediately above the mill. The wheel hub bears the inscription "Alexander McDonell 1837".

The mill was erected in 1837 by Alexander McDonell on the site of a late 18th-century paper mill. Contemporary descriptions record it as having "three pairs of stones, good machinery of the most modern construction, an excellent kiln, and ample storage for carrying on an extensive trade". The wheel formerly powered a flax scutch mill also erected in 1837. The threshing mill was probably erected shortly afterwards and appears on an 1853 site map. The complex was operated by the Nicholson family from around 1870 until the 1950s. The building is recorded as derelict and is of industrial archaeological interest.