County: Roscommon Site name: Elphin Windmill
Sites and Monuments Record No.: RO016-102002- Licence number: 22E0384
Author: Eoin Halpin
Site type: Windmill
Period/Dating: —
ITM: E 586479m, N 789175m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.851867, -8.205497
Elphin windmill is the oldest restored functional windmill in Ireland and recognised by Industrial Archaeologist Colin Rynne ‘as a good example of the manual tailpole type of structure operated as it was originally intended’.
The site is located some 1.2km to the north-west of the village of Elphin in Co Roscommon. This archaeological monument, recorded as RO016-102002-, also recorded on the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage (Reg. No. 31810010), was built by Edward Synge, Church of Ireland Bishop of Elphin, c.1750. It was described as ‘Ruins of windmill’ on the 1837 edition of the OS 6-inch map and ‘Windmill (in ruins)’ on the OS map of c.1910 and is surrounded by level improved grassland.
In the early 1990s the local community, who subsequently became ‘Elphin Area Community Enterprise Ltd’, set about its restoration. Today the monument consists of a three-storey tower mill, with lintelled doorways at the east and west. Lit by small rectangular windows at the first and second floors, it has a thatched roof, sails and a rotating cap. It stood on a 30m diameter flat-topped mound
(RO016-102001-), depicted as a circular feature only on the Ordnance Survey 1914 edition The mound has been partially levelled, apparently in the construction of the windmill, but is still apparent when the monument is viewed from the south.
The thatch was falling into disrepair, which required immediate replacing before damage escalated due to water ingress.
The works were attended at three separate occasions, at the outset, roughly halfway through and finally when the works were nearing completion. Nothing of an archaeological nature was noted or reported in the course of the works to the windmill.
AHC Ltd 36 Ballywillwill Road, Castlewellan, Co. Down BT31 9LF
