Windmills of The Isle of Man 🌍

The Manx for windmill is mwyllin-gheayee or mwyljyn-geayee.

Surviving mills

# photo id name location maps type condition
1 #iom5   Baldromma, Maughold NGR: SC490913
(54.29555,-4.3219)
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small farm mill incorporated into house
2 no
image 		#iom4   Ballacorage, Ballaugh NGR: SC348956 small farm threshing mill house converted as "Windmill Cottage"
3 no
image 		#iom2   Ballawhane, Andreas NGR: NX398012
(54.38154,-4.4684)
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small stone tower threshing mill derelict by 1952, with uneven/ruinous curb, adjacent to 2 storey barn
4 no
image 		#iom7   Billown Quarry, Malew NGR: SC269702 large iron wind pump  
5 #iom1   Castletown NGR: SC259677
(54.07525,-4.6623)
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tower House converted - now has a glass roof contained within the tower.
6 #iom3 Lezayre Mill (Now Beaconsfield Towers) Ramsey NGR: SC445952
(54.32855,-4.3922)
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combined corn and saw mill smooth rendered tower truncated to two storeys, now incorporated into Beaconsfield Towers residential care home
7 no
image 		#iom6   South Barrule Slate Quarry Malew NGR: SC270768
(54.15865,-4.6502)
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small stone tower  

Historical locations

Andreas

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skeletal mill attached to barn

Recorded in a watercolour painting by J Coleman, one of a series of paintings he did in a sketchbook he titled "Sketches from Manxland" around 1899. The painting shows a skeletal mill with 4 wooden uprights coming together to produce the mill tower. The drive from the 4 common sails is transferred via a vertical metal shaft through some form of right angled gearing, so that it then enters the small single storeyed barn alongside. The painting also shows the tower of Andreas church in the background, and since there appears to be nothing but open fields between the mill and the church, this would probably indicate that this was located on one of the farms to the south of Andreas.

Farm mill, Andreas - painting by J Coleman, c1899

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Modern wind turbines

Mann Today, Vol 1#1 March 1986 reports that there was once an experimental 100Kw turbine erected to the west of South Barrule, which was used from 1959 for about 5 years, until repeated mechanical problems caused it to be taken down

The thrust of the article "Of Windmills, Museums and Music" however, is in discussing an application by the Manx Electricity Authority to erect 10 turbines, which never took place.

Similarly Manx Life in Aug 1993 reported on another application to construct a windfarm at Lambfell, Michael, which was not carried through.

One again however, there are tentative plans for a windfarm near Old Mines.

Links

Map of all The Isle of Man mills - Download to Google Earth - Overpass

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Last updated 16/09/2025 Text and images © Mark Berry, 1997-2025 -
Portions © Maureen Hall 2005
J Coleman paintings by permission of Dave Wilson