2007:1366 - Philpotstown 4, Meath

This site was located within Contract 2 (Dunshaughlin–Navan) of the proposed M3 Clonee to North of Kells motorway, was excavated in 2007 and represented a former mill site. Two structures were identified during the excavations. Structure 1 (c. 3m by 4m, internally) had an internal floor surface: a moderately compact greyish-light-brown silty clay with occasional charcoal inclusions as well as both red and also yellow bricks and occasional metal objects. Structure 2 (up to 8m long by 4m wide) consisted of walls set in regularly coursed blocks. The floor surface was similar to that in Structure 1 and comprised a moderately compact light–mid-grey silty clay with occasional stones and charcoal. A large subrectangular wheel pit was contained within the centre of this structure. There were several associated areas of metalling and cobbling along with rubble outside the structures.
A possible mill-race ran almost perpendicular to Structure 2. It was associated with a possible tail-race (17.6m by 2.3m by 0.53m), filled with silty sand at the time of excavation and kerbed with large stones. The mill-race would have directed and diverted water from the nearby stream, a tributary of the River Lismullin (over which Dillon’s Bridge was constructed) and channelled water towards the wheel pit in Structure 2. The force of the water would have turned the wheel in the wheel pit, thus providing and harnessing the energy and power required to rotate an axle that drove other machinery in order to grind the grain in the mill. The water leaving the wheel pit would have been drained through the tail-race and presumably the movement of this water would have been controlled, perhaps by a wooden sluice-gate no longer extant at the time of excavation.
As only one wheel pit was identified in Structure 2 there would only have been one millstone for grinding and therefore this mill must have operated on a relatively small scale, perhaps just providing grain for the local community. Once ground, the grain may have been further sorted and processed in Structure 1.
It is likely that this site was related to the neighbouring sites, such as Dillon’s Bridge School at Philpotstown 3 (see No. 1365 above, A008/029), located across the river, and the Post Office and smithy at Philpotstown 1 (Excavations 2005, AD14, A008/024), where water would have been an essential component for the blacksmith’s activities.