Re-Discovering the Mill Stream Arch

One mill is marked on the OSI c.1837 first-edition six-inch map. Image courtesy the National Library of Scotland, licence CC-BY.

I'm still trying to make sense of the arrangement of buildings around the mill stream, as shown on old OSI maps, south of where the Mass path crosses the stream. These are visible on the OSI c. 1837 first-edition 6-inch map.  On the later 25-inch map, there's a distinct offset in the route of the stream near the location of the arch. The bed of the stream also appears raised at this point. Possibly a weir was located here to create a pressure head for a mill wheel.

 

There's a distinct offset in the stream course. Image © Tailte Éireann

I hadn't seen the arch since around 1981. I thought it was covered with scrub and brambles over the decades, and was submerged below the waterline, but not so. This was a good time of the year to investigate it before the brambles got going.  

My theory is that it could have been the opening to a culvert/mill race that diverted water to a mill in the adjoining field beside the cemetery car park or it may have been the return feed to the stream. One mill is marked on the 6-inch, first-edition OSI map and was located just over the wall from where the bins used to be kept in the cemetery. The ruins of the mill is still there. There's an arched culvert under the Mile Mill road, south of the bend at the entrance to the cemetery, that fed water to this mill.

I think the arched opening into the stream is unlikely to be a latrine outlet or drain as it's too wide. I thought most of the arch was submerged below the waterline, but possibly the bed of the stream has dropped over the last four decades due to erosion. 

An image from the Lawrence Collection shows a building in the field, adjacent to the cemetery car park.

A brick arch, located in a wall adjacent to the Mill Stream in Kilcullen. © Eugene Brennan

© Eugene Brennan

A building, now demolished, visible in a photo from the Lawrence Collection. © National Library of Ireland

 

The  mill stream north of the Mass path bridge was also re-routed post-1939, the earlier route passing through the adjacent field, the latter being depicted as "liable to floods" on the map. 

The map above is a ChatGPT-sharpened version of a screenshot of the c. 1837 first-edition six-inch map available on the National Library of Scotland website. The scans appear to be a bit clearer than those available on Tailte Éireann's Irish Townland and Historical Map viewer.
Map reproduction licence CC-BY, courtesy the National Library of Scotland.

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