80 Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy. 



prehistoric times and in some places survives stilL The mill had early- 

 become established in Britain. There seems to be no remaining 

 evidence of its use in England; but there can be no doubt that 

 when the mill was equally common in Scotland, the Isle of Man, and 

 Ireland, it was also ordinary in this part of the kingdom. 



(p. 13.) — In Ireland, over half a century ago, the discovery of 

 relics of water-mills of remarkable form led to a systematic exploration, 

 which eventually established the fact that the Norse horizontal mill 

 had been extensively in use there from, at all events, the seventh to 

 the eleventh century. The Irish laws ascribed to King Cormac, of the 

 third century, as well as certain traditions of the same king, seem to 

 refer to these mills ; but the actual date, both of enactments and 

 legends, is so extremely doubtful as scarcely to warrant their accept- 

 ance as evidence of any Irish mills existing in the third century. The 

 Kilkenny Archaeological Society, under whose auspices the investiga- 

 tions were carried out, found the black oaken remains of these ancient 

 machines in the dried-up channels of old streams, covered sometimes 

 with turf, and sometimes with beds of clay from 6 to 10 feet thick, 

 the clay having evidently been purposely placed upon the mill, in some 

 time of rapine, to conceal them from marauders. 



At Ballymartin was found, at a depth of 6 feet below the surface, 

 a fi'amework of black oak, placed across traces of an ancient water- 

 course. It measm-ed 11 feet by 6 feet, and supported a flooring of 

 boards 2 inches thick, and some of them 3 feet wide — all having been 

 evidently di-essed with the adze. At Bramblestown, near Gowran, in 

 deepening a river-course, a similar platform framework, together with 

 fragments of millstones, was exposed. One of the latter had been 

 2 feet 5 inches in diameter, and the marks of the position of the rynd 

 on the upper stone was still apparent. (Kilk. Archasolog. Soc, i. 154.) 



(p. 14.) — Discoveries at Bantry and Mallow revealed the same 

 general features ; but here also were found water-troughs of black 

 oak, about 12 feet in length, which had evidently been used for the 

 purpose of conveying water to the mills to create a fall. The oaken 

 shaft or spindle was also found. In the neighbourhood of these dis- 

 coveries is one of the raths or enclosed prehistoric camps. Two pair 

 of millstones here were neatly finished and well faced, the upper 

 being 2 feet in diameter, and 1^-inch thick at the eye at the centre. 

 The stream was very small, and had a fall of only 5 feet. At Shanna- 

 cashel, Co. Cork, the mill seemed to have been burned down ; but 

 on the floor were a pair of millstones, a wooden shovel, and the 

 shaft of a wheel. The upper stone was 8 inches thick and 2 feet 



