Historic Building Details

HB Ref No:
HB24/02/041

Address :
Old Windmill Kirkistown Golf Course Main Road Kirkistown Newtownards Co. Down BT22 1J?

Townland:
Kirkistown

---

Survey 2:
Record Only

Date of Listing:

Date of De-listing:

Current Use:
Windmill

Former Use
Windmill

Conservation Area:
No

Industrial Archaeology:
Yes

Vernacular:
No

Thatched:
No

Monument:
No

Derelict:
Yes

---

OS Map No:
188/6

IG Ref:
J6411 5784

---

Owner Category

Private

Exterior Description And Setting

Ruined rumble stump of a windmill c.6.5m in height and c.5m in diameter, now surrounded by a golf course (near the green of the 2nd hole). There is a small arched ‘doorway’ in the N side with a possibly once similar ‘doorway’ to the S, with tiny rectangular openings above each. The walls are roughly 1m thick and some of the stone work looks to have been repaired recently. Odd shallow relieving arch at ground level of interior of wall, a feature which (according to Dr. Fred Hamond) may originally have been a door, with the ground level since raised.

Architects

Not Known

Historical Information

It is possible that this windmill is the one built by James McGill (the then owner of these lands and Kirkistown Castle) in the later seventeenth century, and referred to by William Montgomery as being visible ‘far out at sea’ in his 1683 History of the Ards. The building is marked on James Williamson’s map of 1810 and on the OS map of 1834, however, it is not referred to in the OS Memoirs or the records of the Townland Valuation, suggesting it was no longer in use by the 1830s. References- Primary sources 1 Montgomery’s MSS ‘History of the Ards’ (1683), p. 6-7. [Original MS in the Linenhall Library, Belfast]. 2 PRONI D.616 James Williamson’s ‘Maps of the County of Down’ 1810. 3 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st Edition, 1834, Co. Down 25. 4 PRONI VAL 1B/35 1st valuation, Ardkeen, c.1835. 5 PRONI Ordnance Survey Maps, 1st revision, 1860, Co. Down 25. 6 PRONI 2nd valuation, Ardkeen, c.1863. Secondary sources 1 E.R.R. Green 'The Industrial Archaeology of County Down' (HMSO Belfast 1963), p. 56. 2 Dr. F. Duff ‘Windmills around Portaferry and District’ in 'Journal of Upper Ards Historical Society, No.1' (1977), p. 15.

Criteria for Listing

Architectural Interest

Not listed

Historic Interest

Not listed

Evaluation

Ruined stump of a windmill of possible late seventeenth century origin, latterly more notable as an aid to navigation than for its original function

General Comments

Date of Survey

16 September 1997