Windmill, off Mary Street, Warrenpoint, Newry, Co Down, BT34 3NT

Windmill, off Mary Street, Warrenpoint

This important early nineteenth-century tower mill stands as the truncated shell of a slightly tapered structure accessed by a lane from Mary Street. Only the four bottom floors survive, up to and including stage level, with no roof remaining.

The mill's base measures 9.36 metres (30 feet 9 inches) internally. The walls are constructed of rendered random rubble, predominantly granite, and are 1.10 metres (3 feet 7 inches) thick. Two diametrically opposite entrances serve the ground floor. The western entrance is 2.26 metres wide, whilst the eastern entrance measures 1.90 metres and has been infilled with random rubble with a smaller doorway subsequently created. Both openings feature shallow segmental voussoired granite heads. Above the eastern entrance is a stone incised with the date '1802', and the ghost of a small gabled porch is visible nearby. To the left of this door lies a former window that was enlarged to form a doorway and then infilled with concrete blocks. A fourth small doorway to the south has also been infilled with concrete blockwork. Additional openings may exist on this floor but are currently inaccessible or hidden by internal blockwork.

The first floor contains three windows and two loading doors, all with dressed granite heads, timber lintels on the interior, jambs and cills. One door has concrete block infill. The second floor has three windows and one door, with one window infilled with random rubble. Wall sockets between this and the floor below indicate the position of stage bracing timbers. The third floor features two doors leading to the former stage and four windows. Putlog holes between this floor and the one below mark the position of the external stage, from which the sails and cap winding mechanism were accessed. Notably, few openings align vertically between floors—a configuration that may have been deliberate to minimise settlement cracking.

The datestone confirms construction in 1802. According to Thomas Bradshaw's 1819 directory, the mill was "a very valuable concern; the machinery (a large proportion of which is cast metal) having been constructed on the most approved plan". The 1836 Ordnance Survey Memoir records it as "built by Mr Robert Turner in 1802, now the property of Messrs Isaac Glenny and Sons, used for flour and meal, works metal and wood, steam engine attached, 16 horsepower, at work all the year." The 1835 Valuation lists the windmill as standing 68 feet high with a mean internal diameter of 31 feet, and records associated buildings including a corn kiln, stores and steam engine house. By 1863, the Valuation describes it as vacant, having "been worked by steam but is now idle and likely to remain so for some time." It did not restart, and the frontage to the Square was demolished in the 1880s and replaced by the present terrace of commercial buildings.

A late nineteenth-century Lawrence photograph shows the mill in good preservation, standing to eight floors including the cap. It comprised a tapered cylindrical structure with stage, conical cap, four anti-clockwise common sails, and a pulley mechanism at the back of the cap for turning it to wind. The photograph also documents the chimney of the steam engine.

The windmill was erected during the height of the Napoleonic Wars (1780–1815), reflecting the importance of wheat growing and milling for export to Britain at that period. Its substantial size, compared with traditional small cylindrical corn-grinding windmills, indicates its operation as a merchant mill rather than a small-scale toll mill, with capacity for storing incoming wheat and outgoing flour. Only three such mills are recorded in Northern Ireland—here, at Armagh, and near Londonderry, with the latter two surviving to their full height. The mill's significant investment is evident in its size, the cast-iron composition of much of its gearing, and the presence of a steam-powered auxiliary engine. Its location adjacent to the dock was also strategically important for importing wheat and exporting flour.

The mill is protected through scheduling and was delisted from the heritage register on 19 July 2010 to avoid dual protection.