Mill, opposite 3 Derryleckagh Road, Newry, Co Down, BT34 2NL

Mill opposite 3 Derryleckagh Road, Newry

This is a landmark on the Newry–Hilltown Road comprising the ruins of a flour mill complex on the north-facing left bank of the Clanrye River. All buildings are now derelict with no internal features or machinery surviving.

The flour mill is a ruinous five-and-a-half storey shell, formerly with a pitched natural slate roof now gone. The walls are of random granite rubble, partly rendered and heavily overgrown with ivy. All windows and doors lack frames. The north elevation faces the river and has two windows to each floor, all in line. At the base of the wall near the centre is a shallow segmental arch, now infilled, which may once have been the tailrace from an internal waterwheel. The east gable has a door at ground floor and first floor level, with a window to the third floor and attic. The south elevation has four windows to the south face. Its left end is abutted by a kiln. The west gable is abutted by a small one-storey roofless lean-to entrance porch. The mill was formerly powered by a waterwheel; the headrace is still evident at the south-east.

The kiln stands to the same eaves height as the mill but is only four storeys internally, and wall breaks suggest it is a later addition. It is of similar random rubble construction. Openings to the top two floors have segmental brick heads. The top floor is abutted to the south by a monopitched random rubble building fronting the lane access.

Beyond the west gable of the kiln is a derelict single-storey two-bay dwelling, probably once the miller's house. It has a pitched natural slate roof with chimney on the west gable and random rubble walls. The principal elevation faces north with an entrance on the left of the right bay. Single windows to each bay on front and rear walls; the gables are blank.

The complex is shown on the 1834 Ordnance Survey map as a flour mill and was probably built in the first decade of the 19th century. The First Valuation records it belonging to Samuel Parsons, who also owned two nearby mills, describing it as a corn and flour mill measuring 50 feet by 26 feet by 42 feet with a 26 feet by 9 feet by 7 feet return and a kiln measuring 27 feet by 27 feet by 42 feet. The miller's house measured 27 feet by 15 feet by 6 feet 6 inches. According to the 1836 Ordnance Survey Memoir, the mill was driven by a 16-foot diameter by 6-foot wide breast-shot waterwheel. The kiln's apparent later addition reflects the mill's diversification from wheat milling into oatmeal milling, requiring thorough grain drying. The Second Valuation of around 1861 notes it then belonging to Isaac Parsons and containing three pairs of stones—one grinder and two shellers—for oats and maize. By 1871, only one set of stones remained in use, with most of the building defunct and in poor repair. Samuel Cooper acquired the premises around 1874 and the mill resumed full operation shortly afterwards. It was gutted by fire around 1885 and appears as a ruin on the 1902–03 Ordnance Survey map.