County: Mayo Site name: DRUMSHINNAGH
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 78:10 Licence number: 05E0733
Author: Bernard Guinan, Coosan, Athlone, Co. Westmeath.
Site type: Windmill
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 541008m, N 801415m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.958677, -8.898869
Excavation is ongoing at the site of a windmill at Drumshinnagh, Castlebar, Co. Mayo. This monument lies wholly within the acquisition line of the Newport road realignment scheme.
The windmill site is located on the top of a high hill with panoramic views of the surrounding landscape. The site is marked on the first-edition OS map as a windmill stump. The only visible remains of the site are a grass-covered circular mound, c. 15m in diameter and c. 0.3m in height, at the centre of a semicircular enclosure linked to a field boundary and a narrow overgrown trackway, running up to the mill site from the south. This enclosing circular bank was heavily overgrown with trees, briars and thorn bushes and measured c. 35m in diameter and c. 0.5m high. To date, a programme of strimming, tree-cutting and briar/undergrowth clearance has been undertaken and the enclosure around the site surveyed. Excavation will continue in 2006.
