Imagining Cormac's Mill,

What might Ireland's first Mill have looked like?

The Hill of Tara

In a previous article we explored the very real possibility that Cormac's Mill, reputedly the first mill in Ireland, was located on the slopes of the Hill of Tara.

The Mill was constructed in the 3rd Century at the request of Cormac Mac Airt, King of Tara, and I believe it was located at a site beside Tara Hall at the place where the Nith stream descends into the Nith Glen.  The evidence from the historical documents certainly suggests this, but is it possible? Was the site suitable for a mill?  What would it have looked like and how would it have operated?

In order to explore these questions we first have to look at the milling technology of the early Medieval period.  In their book 'A New History of Ireland, Prehistoric and early Ireland', Dáibhí Ó Cróinín and Theodore William Moody set out the milling technology that was becoming common in Ireland by the 6th and 7th Century.

Cormac's Mill at Tara, 275AD

Finding Cormac's Mill, the First Mill in Ireland.


I've always been fascinated by the Hill of Tara and it's surrounding landscape, not just because of it's importance as the centre of Irish mythological and historical events for thousands of years; -it's layer upon layer of archaeological remains, the ring forts, the wells, the burial mounds- but by something more intangible.

Fig (i) The Hill of Tara

The place has a hold on our imaginations that is hard to explain, and even people who have never read it's history can't help but feel a sense of magic and mystery when they walk between the ditches of the great Banqueting Hall or stand at the site of the Liath Fail and gaze down at the land rolling out before them. 

When we read the myths, the history and the folklore we start to realise that, despite what archaeology can reveal, there are still so many mysteries that remain.

But what has this got to do with Hydropower, I hear you ask?