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See alsoBrehon Law; Chief Governors; Kings and
Kingship; Mac Murchada, Diarmait; Tuarastal
MILLS AND MILLING
The technology of building horizontal and vertical
watermills entered Ireland from the Roman world,
although the manner and exact date of transmission
are unclear. Both forms, dating to around 630, are
known from Little Island in Cork Harbor, while
Cogitosus’s Life of Brigid (c. 650) describes a mill
and gives an account of the cutting and fitting of a
millstone. The horizontal watermill was the preferred
form in early medieval Ireland, probably because it was
better suited to small, fast-flowing steams and, also,
because of the absence of gears, it was comparatively
simple and cheap to build. Typically the horizontal mill
was housed within a two-story, rectangular structure
consisting of an upper and a lower room. The upper
room contained the grinding stones and the hopper
mechanism for the grain, while a vertical shaft con-
nected the upper grinding stone with a horizontal water-
wheel, composed of paddles, in the chamber below.
Water was channeled by means of a millrace and a
chute so that it fell onto the horizontal wheel causing
it to turn. One revolution of the waterwheel produced
one revolution of the upper rotary stone, which was
usually no more than about three feet across.
Vertical mills had an upright waterwheel with a
horizontal axle that was geared to a vertical shaft,
which was connected to the grinding stones. The gear-
ing made it possible to adjust the rotation speed of the
millstones, something that was impossible in the hor-
izontal mill. Vertical waterwheels could be fed from
above (overshot) or below (undershot) and both forms
are evidenced in the Roman world. The fall of water
from above gave the overshot mill greater power but
it was more expensive and time-consuming to build.
Accordingly, undershot mills are much more common.
Apart from Little Island, another early example of a
vertical undershot watermill, dating to about 710, is
known from Morett, County Laois. Tide mills, in
which a current was created by water descending from
a pool where it had been trapped at high tide, are a
feature of Atlantic Europe. The earliest Irish example
is at Strangford Lough (619–621), while the Little
Island mills, already mentioned, were also tidal. Early
medieval mills are frequently found at ecclesiastical
sites. Some have been found in isolation, but insuffi-
cient work has been done to determine whether they
formed part of ecclesiastical and aristocratic estates or
not. All of the known early examples are in rural loca-
tions but from the twelfth century onward, watermills
are found in the Hiberno-Scandinavian port towns,
where they tended to be located on feeder streams
rather than tidal reaches.
Despite the ubiquity of watermills in early medieval
Ireland, the grinding of grain by hand, using quern
stones, remained commonplace. This changed after the
Anglo-Norman invasion, when all grain had to be
ground at designated mills. Such mills were a signifi-
cant source of income for the ecclesiastical and terri-
torial lords who monopolized the manufacture of flour
until the close of the Middle Ages. A good example
of a vertical undershot watermill of thirteenth- and
fourteenth-century date was excavated at Patrick
Street, Dublin. As is common with mills established
at this time, the Patrick Street mill continued in use,
periodically remodeled and rebuilt, into modern times.
Windmills are documented in Britain from 1137,
Vertical Watermill, circa 630 CE. but in Ireland they seem to be a feature of the thirteenth