archaeological letterkenny

One of the few monuments of industrial archaeology in state care in the Republic is the complex of mills at Newmills, three miles west of Letterkenny.

It was operated for centuries by the Gallagher family until it ceased functioning in 1982. Water was siphoned off from the River Swilly for the quarter-of-a-mile long mill-race which fed two separate mills in turn. The upper mill, with much of its machinery still in place, was for flax, used in the making of linen, while the lower mil...