Horizontal
Tide Mill at Nendrum
 INTRODUCTION
In April 1999 a Horizontal
Tide Mill and its millpond were discovered at the monastic site of Nendrum on
Mahee Island in Strangford Lough.
In the following year (2000) excavations were extended to include what
appeared to be the remains of a much larger millpond.
It became apparent that the mill complex first found in 1999 was the final
design and that material scavenged from the earlier structure had been used
in its construction.
Timber from the later mill (Mill 2) was dated by dendrochronology to AD 787
and timber from the earlier structure (Mill 1) gave a date of AD 619.
This makes a Nendrum tide mill the earliest tide mill and also the earliest
dated horizontal mill known in the British Isles.
The following pages contain many images of the dig.
They were first posted in 1999 by the team’s engineering advisor, (who
is not a professional archaeologist) and are about the discovery and
excavation of Mill 2 only, that is to say the final phase of the mill that
was initially uncovered in 1999.
The text has been updated with minor changes to
January 2008
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