164 Mr. Petrie on the History and Antiquities of Tar a Hill. 



Irish Saints show, that mills were erected by ecclesiastics, shortly after the intro- 

 duction of Christianity, as the mills of St. Senanus, St. Ciaran, St. Mochua, &c. 

 (See the lives of these Saints.) The mills of St. Lucherin and St. Fechin are 

 noticed by Geraldus Cambrensis, and a mill at Fore, built on the ancient site of 

 the latter, still exists, and Is called St. Fechin's Mill. The Annals of Tighearnach, 

 at the year 651, record, that the two sons of Blamac, (King of Ireland,) son of 

 Hugh Slaine, — Donchad, and Conall, — were mortally wounded by the Lagenlans 

 In Maelodraln's mill. The Four Masters also, at the year 998, record, that a 

 remarkable stone, called Lia-Ailbe, which stood on the plain of Moynalvy, In 

 Meath, fell, and that the king Maelsechlain made four mill-stones of It. 



From the preceding authorities, as well as from the classical etymology of the 

 name, In Ireland as In every country In Europe, It might be supposed, that 

 water mills were first Introduced by Christian ecclesiastics. There Is reason, 

 however, to believe, that their Introduction Is of higher antiquity. Cuan 

 O'LochaIn, chief poet and lawgiver of Irerand, whose death Is recorded In the 

 Annals of Tighearnach, at the year 1 024, states in his poem on the ruins then 

 existing at Tara, that Cormac, the son of Art, chief monarch of Ireland, In the 

 third century, had a beautiful cumal, or bondmaid, named Clarnaid, who was 

 obliged to grind a certain quantity of corn every day with a bro, or quern ; but 

 that the king observing her beauty, took her into his house, and sent across the 

 sea for a millwright, (rug j^aop TTluillint) cap mop tint),) who constructed a 

 mill on the stream of Nith, which flows from the fountain of Neamhnach to the 

 north-east of Tara. The ancient Irish authorities all agree in stating, that 

 this was thejirst mill ever erected In Ireland; and It is remarkable, that this 

 circumstance is most vividly preserved by tradition, not only In the neighbour- 

 hood where a mill still occupies Its site, but also in most parts of Ireland. Tra- 

 dition adds, that It was from the king of Scotland the Irish monarch obtained 

 the millwright ; and It can be shown, that the probability of its truth is strongly 

 corroborated by that circumstance. 



Professor Tennant, of St. Andrew's, in an ingenious essay on Corn-mills, 

 states, that " the first corn-mill driven by water was Invented and set up by 

 Mithridates, king of Cappadocia, the most talented, studious, and ingenious 

 prince of any age or country. It was set up in the neighbourhood of his capital, 

 or palace, about seventy years before the commencement of the Christian era. 



