County: Roscommon Site name: Cloonakille
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RO051–019 Licence number: 08E0747
Author: Martin E. Byrne, Byrne Mullins & Associates, 7 Cnoc Na Greine Square, Kilcullen, Co. Kildare.
Site type: Modern industrial
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 598625m, N 742137m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.429337, -8.020686
Testing was undertaken at the site of a proposed residential development at Cloonakille, Bealnamullia, in September 2008. The northern boundary of the site is formed by a former mill-race and part of the site was previously occupied by a 19th-century mill. It has been suggested that the later mill complex was constructed on the site of a 13th-century mill (Egan 2004, 76). The later 19th-century mills were subsequently converted to use as a tannery in the 1960s. This resulted in a number of the buildings being demolished prior to the construction of concrete tanning pits. The site was subsequently cleared in the 1990s and the ground surface raised. The only subsurface features uncovered related to the 1960s buildings, and included concrete foundations, floors and a tanning pit.
Reference
Egan, E. 2004 Milling on the Crannagh Cross River. Privately published.
