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Portaferry windmill is a nineteenth-century windmill stump located in the Ards Peninsula of County Down, Northern Ireland. The monument stands on bedrock of the Hawick Group, a formation of wacke laid down during the Wenlock period of the Silurian, which provides the solid geological foundation typical of the drumlin landscape of east County Down. The site lies at grid reference J599505, within the townland of Portaferry.
The stump represents the substantial stone base of a wind-powered grain mill, a common feature of rural and coastal settlements during the nineteenth century when mechanised milling was transforming agricultural processing. Portaferry's location on the peninsula, with exposure to Atlantic winds funnelling through the narrows of Strangford Lough, would have made it a favourable site for such a structure. The survival of only the lower stonework suggests the mill's upper machinery and cap were lost or dismantled after the structure fell out of use.
The monument is protected by the Historic Environment Division of the Department for Communities under reference 7674. This designation recognises its significance as physical evidence of nineteenth-century rural industrial heritage and the role of wind-powered mills in the economic and social life of the Ards Peninsula during the period of agricultural change.
Portaferry windmill. windmill stump is a scheduled monument protected by Department for Communities NI under reference 7674. View the official record →
Portaferry windmill is a nineteenth-century windmill stump located in the Ards Peninsula of County Down, Northern Ireland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) under reference 7674.
Portaferry windmill. windmill stump dates from the c19th period, and is classified as a windmill. It is one of over 32,000 scheduled monuments protected across the UK.
Portaferry windmill. windmill stump is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by DfC Northern Ireland (NISMR) — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Ni. The official designation reference is 7674.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Platform rath (2.3 km), Tara fort. bivallate rath (3.4 km), Navigation pillar (3.8 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Portaferry windmill. windmill stump's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Portaferry windmill. windmill stump stands on Hawick Group, bedrock that formed in the Wenlock. The rock here is wacke.