2013:113 - Killeen Mill, Clowanstown, Meath

The site of a proposed development at Killeen Mill, Clowanstown, Co Meath was assessed on 23 April 2013. The testing was carried out in response to a further information request from Meath County Council on foot of a planning application by the owners to develop the site. The site is located just north-west of Dunshaughlin. The mill (known locally as Teelings Mill) is recorded in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (Ref: 14403802) and is also a listed building in the Meath County Development Plan which affords it Statutory Protection. It was thought to date from c. 1800 but recent research commissioned by the owners suggest it may date back further to at least the 17^th century, though with major modification during the 19^th and 20^th centuries.

The proposed development included the conservation of the mill and its associated buildings and restoration of the miller’s house together with a new dwelling in the field to the north and associated waste water treatment units and percolation areas. The mill complex today comprises vernacular buildings of 18^th- and 19^th-century appearance, consisting chiefly of a large four-storied rubble mill powered by a horizontal wheel and an adjoining two-storied miller's house. Historic Building consultant Liam Mulligan, who carried out an architectural assessment of the mill, suggests that it had at its core a much older and more modest structure with some evidence for this visible in the masonry of the front wall suggesting a two storey original structure which was then enlarged during the 18th century.

A total of seven trenches were excavated throughout the site in locations to be disturbed by the proposed development. No archaeological features were exposed either in the garden attached to the miller’s house or the field to the north of the mill complex where it is proposed to site the new dwelling. There was no evidence uncovered in any of the trenches suggesting activity earlier than the present mill buildings. The earlier mill structure appears to be part of the fabric of the existing mill and would have utilized the same mill race, pond and wheel locations. The present development includes for the gradual conservation of the mill and its associated features and the architectural heritage study previously carried out concluded that the proposed works would not impact on the historical fabric of the building.

Archaeological Consultancy Services Unit, Unit 21 Boyne Business Park, Greenhills, Drogheda, Co. Louth