[ 265 ] 



XI. 



NOTES ON GIG-MILLS AND DRYING KILNS NEAR 

 BALLYHAUNIS, COUNTY MAYO. 



By HUBERT T. KNOX. 



Plates XIX., XX. 



Read November 30, 1906. Ordered for Publication December 5, 190G. 

 Published January 30, 1907. 



Mr. O'Reilly's article on " Ancient "Water Mills" in the Proceedings 

 of the Royal Irish Academy, vol. xxiv., Section c, p. 55, treats of the 

 horizontal water-wheel as no longer in use in Ireland. In the "Social 

 History of Ancient Ireland," vol. ii., p. 339, Dr. Joyce vrrites that they 

 were in full work all over Connaught fifty or sixty years ago, and that 

 in Connaught people called them ' gig-mills ' when speaking English. 

 A few survive around Ballyhaunis, and prohahly also in other regions. 

 As the tendency is to convert them into vertical wheel mills, and as 

 they are likely to he extinct soon, I have here put together informa- 

 tion which has heen given me from County Mayo. 



The origin of the name * gig-mill ' is ohscure. One man says it is 

 from the English ' whirligig.' Brian Kerins, of Cullentra, says he 

 never heard the term ' gig-mill ' until he was grown up. The local 

 names in Gaelic give no help. It may be the Gaelic Geng, * a hrancli,' 

 pronounced Geeog in Munster, which would easily become '■ gig,' and 

 well describes the ladles branching from the shaft. 



Such mills abounded in this region. Most of the existing small 

 vertical wheel mills are known to have been gig-mills. A disused 

 gig-mill at Kilvine has a i shaft 3|- feet long, 



William Flatley's Mill. 



It is on the northern shore of the western end of Cullentra Lough. 

 The mill is about 20 feet long, by 10 feet wide. The water tunnel, 

 about 6 feet wide, is at the east end of the mill, which lies east and 



R.I. A. PROC, VOL. XXVI., SEC. c] [21] 



