placenamesMilltown Burndennet
Baile an Mhuilinn
Local historical research and an Abercorn estate rental document a riverside industrial concern that expanded during the eighteenth century.
The name
These Irish name elements are associated with this record in the Logainm glossary.
An element’s translation is a clue, rather than a complete explanation of the name. Its form and meaning depend on local history and the full Irish name.
Recorded forms
- Baile an Mhuilinn · Irish · main form · validated name
- Milltown Burndennet · English · main form
Place & story
McCreery’s expanding business
Bready Ancestry's history records John McCreery becoming tenant of Burndennet's corn mill in November 1756. He added a flax mill in 1759, and by 1764 had built a bleach house and was developing a bleaching green. The combination brought grain processing and linen manufacture together at the site. Maintaining these enterprises proved expensive, however, and McCreery's debts eventually led him to sell his interest to Nathaniel Edie. [2]
The mill in an estate rental
The Abercorn estate rental beginning in November 1787 lists Nathaniel Edie under both Burndennett and a separate heading for its mill and land. A later annotation records a lease granted from November 1791 at a rent of £60. Len Swindley's transcription identifies the original as a Manor of Donelong rental held by PRONI. The document places the industrial holding within the estate's leasing arrangements, alongside the smaller tenancies recorded throughout the manor. [3]
Thornhill and the later mills
Edie invested in repairing the bleaching works and rebuilding the corn mill at a different position. He also established the house known as Thornhill. By the 1840s, the Edies were leasing the bleaching concern to Francis O'Neill of neighbouring Gloudstown, and the former bleach mill was subsequently used for flax processing. Bready Ancestry dates the end of corn milling to about 1890, tracing the decline of an enterprise that had once combined several forms of rural industry. [2]
Geographic information
Sources & further reading
- Logainm.ie — Milltown Burndennet. Place names and geographic record, licensed under CC BY 4.0.
- Rural Industries: Milling and Bleaching at Burndennet · Bready and District Ulster-Scots Development Association
- Abercorn Estate: Rental for the Manor of Donelong, Donagheady Parish,1787, PRONI D623/D/1/18 · Estate rental; transcription by Len Swindley
Name record retrieved 2026-10-25 · Source record modified 2017-02-07. How this page was prepared.