Lacken

Area

11,192 m² (1.12 ha, 2.77 acres)

Buildings

2 buildings touch it. Their footprint covers 154 m².

Zoning

G5 Amenity / Green links/Biodiversity conservation/ Open Space/Recreation (Kilkenny City and County Development Plan 2021-2027) The objective

Townland

Lacken

Planning applications on this parcel

No planning application touches this parcel in the national file, which goes back to 2010.

Source: National Planning Applications, Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Applicants are not shown.

Designated sites

• Special Area of Conservation: River Barrow and River Nore SAC 002162
• Special Protection Area: River Nore SPA 004233

Recorded monuments around it

This parcel is in the zone of notification of 2 recorded monuments.

• KK019-028 Water mill - vertical-wheeled
  Description

  On the N bank of the River Nore, between the river and the Dublin Road, on the outskirts of Kilkenny City. Bradley (2000, 17) cites a medieval reference to a mill at this location in 1307. A watermill is indicated here on the Down Survey (1655-6) parish map of ‘The Parrish of St. Johns in the Liberties of Kilkenny’ (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). The accompanying terrier of the parish map mentions, ‘in Sherlockeland is a Mill in repaire’, this property is listed as being Corporation Land in 1640 (ibid.). Doyle (1985, 152) suggests that, ‘Lacken mill may have been once owned by the Sherlock family, as it was part of an area formerly called Sherlock’s land. In 1425 the Earl of Ormond granted two mills to Walter Sherlock’. In the Civil Survey (1654-6) the mills, located, ‘Lying within half a mile from ye Citty Southward upon ye river Neor’, are described as, ‘Lackings Mills being 3 in number und[e]r one ruffe [roof], whereof there are 2 Corne Mills & 1 Tuck Mill ye walls stone and ye ruffe [roof] Thatch: 1 Corne loft’ and the ‘Ten[an]ts when ye Towne was Taken’ is given as Tho[mas] Lein [Lea, Ley or Leigh] (Simington 1942, vol. 6, 549). According to Doyle (1985, 152), ‘the medieval origins of this mill are all too visible’. He describes how the mill was modernized in the 19th century by the Sullivan family who built a brick façade onto, ‘what looks like a fifteenth or sixteenth century structure’ (ibid.). A wall in the mill has ‘an arch of the period’ and an armorial plaque, bearing part of an Archer coat of arms, was discovered in this wall, with ‘an incised carving of a man in sixteenth century costume’ (ibid.). Doyle mentions another Archer coat of arms at the former Archersgrove mills (KK019-050----) c. 1.2km to the SE (ibid. 153). Adjacent to the mill building, ‘there is a silted-up mill stream, besides the one that turned the twin mill wheels’ (ibid. 152). The mills have been disused since 1946 and are currently roofless (Bradley 2000, 17). See attached extract from the Down Survey (1655-6) parish map of ‘The Parrish of St. Johns in the Liberties of Kilkenny’ (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin) Compiled by: Jean Farrelly Date of upload: 5 October

• KK019-111 Water mill - vertical-wheeled
  Description

  On the S bank of the River Nore, c. 600m ENE of Kilkenny Castle (KK019-026078----) and c. 200m E of the Ormonde Mills (KK019-027----) complex. Known as the 'Archers Mills'. The medieval Lacken Mills (KK019-028----) and Magdalen Mills (KK019-026076-) are located on the opposite/N bank and all the mills on this stretch of the Nore were sited to take advantage of the increased flow of the river as it exited a meander. The Ormond Deeds record that in 1399 James, earl of Ormonde, granted to William Archer, carpenter, the use and profits of four mills in and near Kilkenny (Curtis 1934, vol. 2, no. 343, 242-3). These mills were to be repaired by Archer and remained in the possession of the family until the 17th century (Doyle 1985, 247). The terrier accompanying the Down Survey (1655-6) parish map of ‘St Patrick’s Parish’ mentions that there is, 'in Archersgrove a Thatcht House [KK019-080001-] and two mills in repaire' [KK019-050----] and lists 'Thomas Archer Ir[ish] P[apist]' as the proprietor in 1640 (Hibernia Regnum, courtesy of Trinity College Dublin). The Civil Survey (1654-6) describes the mills belonging to Thomas Archer as, 'being 3 in num[ber] [ ] distinct building [ ] wherein stands a corne ye [ ] walls stone ye ruffe p[ar]t Slate and p[ar]t Thatch. A Building joyning thereunto wherin stands a ruinous Tuck Mill) ye walls stone and ye ruffe Thatch. Another building (wherein stands a Corne mill) ye walls stone and ye ruffe thatch' (Simington 1942, vol. 6, 549). Though not indicated on the Down Survey maps, it is possible that the third mill may refer to one in Dukesmeadows, known as Archers Mills and later as Dullard's Mills (Bradley 2000, 16). In 2002, following excavations (licence no. 01E1041), these mill buildings, referred to locally as the 'Tuck Mill' and consisting of two ruinous but upstanding buildings of 18th/19th-century date, were removed to facilitate the widening of the River Nore as part of the OPW Kilkenny City Drainage Scheme (Doyle 2004, 247). In the course of the excavation the earliest building was identified by an E-W oriented wall, which partially cut into the silted-up river channel. Two N-S aligned walls ran off this latter wall at right angles. The walls were roughly built with limestone rubble and coarse limestone mortar (ibid.). This U-shaped structure had no northern wall or floor levels associated with it, presumably owing to their removal in later phases (ibid.). The excavator speculated that these may represent the remains of a 17th-century mill building (ibid.). Compiled by: Jean Farrelly and Cóilín Ó Drisceoil Date of upload: 13 November 2020

Architectural heritage

• Lacken Mills, mill (water), 1770–1775 · Regional interest
  Description

  Detached ten-bay four-storey corn mill with attic, built 1774. In use as flour mill, pre-1840. Extensively reconstructed, 1876. Disused, 1946. Now in ruins. Pitched roof now gone with no rainwater goods surviving on yellow brick eaves. Random rubble limestone walls with dressed limestone quoins to corners, red brick irregular bond sections to gables, and yellow brick course to eaves. Square-headed window openings in camber-headed recesses with no sills, red brick voussoirs, and remains of timber fittings. Camber-headed door openings with red brick voussoirs, and fittings now missing. Set back from road in own grounds on bank of River Nore.

Designated sites: National Parks and Wildlife Service. Recorded monuments: Sites and Monuments Record, National Monuments Service. Buildings: National Inventory of Architectural Heritage. Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, CC BY 4.0. Works at or in relation to a recorded monument need two months' written notice to the National Monuments Service (National Monuments (Amendment) Act 1994, section 12).

Ground and risks

Radon

About 1 in 10 homes in this area is likely to have high radon levels. Testing a home

Landslides

The 1:50,000 map rates the landslide susceptibility here as moderately low, low. Parts of the land are made ground.

Terrain model

LiDAR of the Office of Public Works, flown in 2011, at 2 m: tile OPW_2184 (ZIP).

Flooding

The Office of Public Works publishes its flood maps on floodinfo.ie.

Radon Risk Map of Ireland, Environmental Protection Agency, and Landslide Susceptibility Classification, Geological Survey Ireland, both under CC BY 4.0. LiDAR: contains Irish Public Sector Data (Geological Survey Ireland & the Office of Public Works) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.

Download this parcel as DXF, in Irish Transverse Mercator metres, with its neighbours and buildings, for a drawing program. GeoJSON, in WGS 84, suits a map, and KML opens in Google Earth.

Registered freehold land, Tailte Éireann, CC BY 4.0. A parcel is the land of a title, not an address. The owner's name is in the Land Registry of Tailte Éireann: a copy of the folio can be ordered on landdirect.ie, for a fee.