The long lost mediaeval Windmill, constructed at the start of the 1400s, was only recently discovered over Merthyr Mawr dunes. Circular in shape and initially used to grind corn it is nestled between thick undergrowth and now resides in a tangle of trees. It is a beautiful structure that harks back to a time past. Coflein (N/D) states “A ruined circular building, 5.0m in diameter, its remains standing up to 4.0m high, with battered walls 0.7m thick and two opposed entrances: the building emerged from the sands of Merthyr Mawr warren, in about 1823, and is thought to be later medieval, being set within an area thought to have been engulfed by sand in and around the sixteenth century. The windmill can be associated with other, possibly medieval features recorded in this area. The site is depicted and annotated as ‘Old Windmill’ on the Ordnance Survey first edition 25in mapping of 1877, as ‘Round Tower (Supposed Windmill)’ on the second and third editions of 1899 and 1919 respectively and as ‘Windmill (Remains of)’ on the fourth edition of 1941 . The remains are of a type of primitive, shorter, parallel-sided mill, similar to those across the channel in Somerset”.
