County: Mayo Site name: Liscromwell
Sites and Monuments Record No.: N/A Licence number: 10E0449
Author: Richard F. Gillespie, Westport Road, Castlebar, Co. Mayo.
Site type: ‘Mill race’
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 517594m, N 792169m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.872407, -9.253081
The test area at Liscromwell consists of low-lying ground located between Castlebar River and the N5 road to the west of Castlebar town. The test area consists of low-lying flattish ground within a meander of the river. It is marked as ‘Mill Greenlodge Liscromel’ on Bald’s map of 1830 as surveyed in 1809–1816. It is marked as a mill in ruins on the first-edition OS 6-inch map with a mill-race running to and from the mill. The overgrown remains of the mill-race (possible) are visible in the central section of the mill-race area. The site is bounded to the south by the current N5 which may have disturbed the mill and is bounded to the north by the Castlebar River, which has been deepened in modern times as evidenced by mounds of spoil along its banks.
The areas either side of the extant section of the possible mill-race were tested to establish whether remains of the mill or mill-race are present within the area directly impacted upon by this scheme, and establish what further archaeological mitigation measures may be required. Testing of the eastern part of the area identified redeposited rubble, including red brick, which may represent the remains of the mill. Substantial deposits of rubble and red brick were located in the south-east of the eastern test area. Here the in situ remains of a small built feature, a kiln or fire box of red brick, mortar and stone with an adjacent rough stone surface, were identified. The location of this feature roughly coincides with the mill as marked on the historic maps and it is likely that subsurface remains of the mill survive to the west. Overgrown piles of rubble and stone to the west, in the area between the two test areas, may derive from the mill.
This has established that the mill-race and outflow channel are not extant within the area tested. Based on the substantial deposit of rubble and the in situ red-brick feature, it is likely that more substantial remains associated with the mill survive within the untested central area, which is unlikely to be affected by the scheme.
