Located beside the river Laney, the former corn mill at Bealick, County Cork was constructed by the Harding family in the closing years of the eighteenth century at a time when demand for cereal crops were high due to the Anglo-French wars. Of rubble stone, the triple-pile gable-fronted eight-bay four-storey building continued in operation throughout the 19th century and in 1899 the mill wheel’s power was harnessed to provide electricity to nearby Macroom: seemingly the town was one of the first in the country to benefit from electric street lighting. Fallen into dereliction, the building was restored a decade ago and turned into a visitor centre, although the premises were resolutely closed when the Irish Aesthete paid a call.

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