Millisle Walking Guide
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Ballycopeland Windmill Millisle Walking Guide visitstrangfordlough.co.uk 6 5 Millisle Map 1 Ballycopeland Windmill 2 The Old Mills 1 3 Kindertransport 4 Amy Carmichael 5 The Standing Stone 2 6 Templepatrick Graveyard 7 Woburn House 3 4 IRISH SEA Please note that this map is not to scale and is for reference only 7 Millisle Walking Guide Historical Walking Trail of Millisle, Co Down The main route consists and end at locations pay attention to primarily of flat outside the village. If the traffic. concrete footpaths with you wish to walk to pedestrian crossing these sites, please take The tour will last one opportunities and you care, paying attention hour approximately. can walk between to traffic at all times. For your convenience, sites although there You may find it easier there are public is a little distance to drive to these sites. toilets located on the involved. This tour Please be aware when Ballywalter Road. does however start crossing the road and We hope you enjoy learning more about the area. If you are interested in finding out more, be sure to look at the other walking guides in the series. Visit www.visitstrangfordlough.co.uk for more information on what to see and do in the area and to download the walking tours. We appreciate your comments and suggestions so please contact us via the website. Just to set the scene, let’s start with a little history about Millisle Although just one of the Millisle is one of enduring “Millies Isle” located off the many villages on the Irish international significance, village’s coastline, recorded Sea coastline, Millisle has stretching back centuries and on an 18th century survey a character & history all still touching lives today as of the area. Local folklore of its own. To the casual far away as India. suggests that the name observer, she can boast came from a 19th century no more than any other The Origin of the Name mill pond belonging to the seaside community; Millisle, translated from the Carmichael family, where an a few shops, a village Irish ‘Oilean an Mhuilinn’ island was to be found – pub, different churches means island of the mill. thus “mill isle”. and some friendly locals. Other stories tell that the origin of the name comes Yet, there is much more than from a group of rocks, named meets the eye! The story of Pages 2 – 3 Let’s begin the walking trail Ballycopeland Windmill 1 Situated to the west of Millisle you The iron and wooden parts were will find this fully restored windmill, skilfully replaced and the sails maintained by the Northern Ireland refurbished, and the miller’s house Environment Agency and the only was restored at the same time. such fully functional windmill in An interesting and unusual aspect Northern Ireland. of the Ballycopeland Windmill is the centre or main shaft of pitch pine, East Down is one of the best grain which must have been the mast of a growing areas in Ireland and windmills sailing ship upended and reused, as have long been a prominent feature rope friction marks are clearly visible. of the landscape. Over a hundred have been recorded in the county, clustering Major structural and mechanical repairs especially in the Ards Peninsula. have been undertaken over many years Ballycopeland could possibly date to restore the windmill to its original from the 1780’s or 1790’s. state and this was fully completed in 1978. It is not clear when or by whom it was built, but it could have been George Bennett around 1795. He died about 1800 and the mill passed into the hands of his son, James. Some time between 1834 and 1860 it was acquired by the McGilton family. James and Maria McGilton had two sons and two daughters. James, the elder son, took over the running of the mill when his father died. James and his wife both became ill in 1895 and died on 23 and 24 April respectively and they were buried together on 25 April at Kircubbin. His brother Thomas became the owner, followed by his sons in turn, Samuel and Robert. The mill ceased to operate during the First World War and fell into disrepair. Samuel offered it to the state in 1935. Millisle Walking Guide The Old Mills 2 There were two corn mills in the village workers. They worked from 6am till 6pm – one beside the sea, which bore the with half an hour off for breakfast and name Lower Mill and one slightly inland, an hour for dinner; this was good by the bearing the name Upper Mill. Both were standards of the time. situated by a stream from which they In addition to these two mills there was a gained their power. flax mill. It was built by David’s two sons, The Mill House can be found on Main David and William, at the same time as Street close to where the Mill Race they rebuilt the other mills. According meets the Irish Sea. This grand building to a poem, the stones for the rebuilding was the former home of William came from “Patrick‘s Temple”. Carmichael and was built beside the old In 1888 the two brothers sold all their flour mill which Robert Carmichael (his local properties to a man called James father, born in Ayrshire in 1733) leased in Fulton. James and his brother George had 1791. His son David built a large house made their fortunes in South America. which became known as Mill House. The flax trade was then at its height, and The milling business prospered and the work was done day and night for 6-9 the Carmichaels became wealthy and months of the year. James died in 1946, influential people. They were also men of leaving his property to his brother-in-law, faith, who treated their workforce kindly John Mitchell. The families worked the and humanely. A bell on the highest mills until their closure in 1960. point of the Mill building would ring each morning at 5.45 to summon the Kindertransport 1938 - 39 3 The townland of Ballyrolly (it is thought around Britain for the plight of the Jewish that the Rolly part of the name was taken children in Germany and Austria. Their plan from a Viking known as Rollo the Dane), to evacuate as many children as possible situated at the southern end of Millisle, became known as the Kindertransport. is a farm with a little known secret from The Kindertransport operation rescued the Second World War. 10,000 children aged from three months to After Kristallnacht or “Night of Broken 17 years; we can only imagine the scenes Glass” which took place during the night as the children left never to see their of 9-10 November 1938, when hundreds parents again. of Jewish synagogues, businesses and The children were housed all over Britain shops were burned, smashed and looted often in disused holiday camps, with foster across Germany and Austria the Jewish parents or in boarding schools and population was left traumatised and unable hostels. Some arrived in Northern Ireland – to save themselves. A rescue plan swung a country they most likely would never into action. This plan was led by a small have heard of. group of volunteers based in London and was known as the Refugee Children’s The small Jewish community based in Movement. Belfast responded to the needs of the young refugees, establishing a hostel in This group combined Christian and Jewish Clifton Street in Belfast. In May 1939, volunteers, who raised money and support Millisle Walking Guide Kindertransport 1938 - 39 continued 3 the Refugee Relief Committee leased the At Millisle Primary School on the Abbey 70 acre derelict farm known as Ballyrolly Road, a Holocaust Memorial Garden has House, part of which had been used for been developed by the school children as bleaching damaged flax on the County a reminder of the Jewish presence in the Down coast. village. A DVD, entitled “A Kinder Place” has also been produced by the school. The Jewish community at Ballyrolly Many people visit the school from all House tilled the land and erected over the world to look at the fascinating outbuildings to be used as dormitories pages of the school registers, which are and amenities, creating a small still kept. community. Every December, the Principal receives a Up to 80 people, including the children crate of oranges from a kibbutz in Israel lived and worked on the farm at any to thank the school for keeping the one time. From the first arrivals in 1938 Millisle story alive. to its closure in 1948 well over 300 adults and children are believed to have The Principal and Governors also decided passed through Ballyrolly Farm. Many of to erect a Holocaust Memorial Garden the children attended Millisle Primary in the grounds of the school, which their School, which was then located on Main pupils and the local public might enjoy. Street. Each foreign child sat beside The star was designed and created by a local child in order to teach them Ned Jackson Smyth from Carrowdore, English. They played football together with its base landscaped by Rodney and enjoyed skimming stones into the Brown, a former pupil of the school. waves while walking along the beach. This acts as a reminder of the community Two of the veterans of Kindertransport who embraced these people needing a planted a grove of trees in the peace place of refuge. forest outside Jerusalem paying tribute to their saviours in Belfast & Millisle.