2016:188 - Pilltown, Kinsalebeg, Waterford

An impact assessment with testing was undertaken at Pilltown Mill to comply with a request for further information by Waterford County Council. The applicants have applied for permission to renovate Pilltown Mill. In 2007 an assessment with testing was undertaken at the site (John Tierney, 07E0099). Pilltown is located on the bank of the Blackwater estuary in West Waterford to the immediate south of the N25. Pilltown Mill is located on the north side of a stream which issues into the north-east corner of the estuary. A mill (WA037-029002-) was recorded at the site in the Civil Survey in 1640. The mill shown on the 1st ed. OS map comprised a complex of buildings, including the flour mill, three associated mill ponds and mill race. Further west in the wider part of the estuary are a number of fish weirs and boat quays. The mill building seems to have been re-modelled in the later part of the 19th century and is shown on the 2nd ed. (1905) OS map as being orientated north-south with three separate courtyards on the west side. It is annotated 'Corn Mill (Disused)'. The mill ponds and mill race appear to have dried out. The site of a castle (WA037-029001-), located in the north-east corner of the site, is also indicated on the second edition map. The castle is listed in the 1654 Civil Survey and is depicted in Hardimans’s 18th-century map of Youghal harbour.

The site comprises an area of 1.5ha. Entry to the site is via a pair of iron gates to the north of the mill complex. The mill complex, including buildings, yards, boundary walls and the mill race is located in the east section of the site. The public, third class, road forms the east boundary of the site, the stream the south boundary, a field boundary forms the north boundary and the west boundary is a stone wall associated with the derelict building west of the mill complex. The ground on either side of the track is in pasture and is divided into paddocks by sheep wire. The current mill complex at the site dates to the 18th or 19th centuries. The buildings to the west of the mill are now in ruins with only the south façade still surviving and some subsurface culverts are also evident. A garden terrace wall, boundary walls, a main gate and a pedestrian gate associated with this ruined building are present.

The main building is a 4-storey 6-bay (3 doors and 3 windows) rectangular building. The roof of the building is completely gone. The south extension is a 2-storey rectangular building broken by 5 bays (1 door and 4 windows). The roof does not survive.

Four test trenches were excavated within the area of the site by a JCB using a flat ditching bucket. The trenches were excavated in the field to the west of the mill buildings on the footprint of the proposed garage, new access road to garage and treatment tank and percolation area. No trenches were excavated in the interior of the mill complex as test trenches had been excavated here in 2007. No archaeological features or artefacts associated with earlier mill buildings or the site of a castle were recorded in any of the trenches.

Eachtra Archaeological Projects Ltd, Lickybeg, Clashmore, Co Waterford