The tower of the old Windmill at Carriveetragh, Clones stands testament to an era before the advent of steam power or the internal combustion engine, when mankind harnessed the raw energy of wind and water as a source of power used in the grinding of grain and other applications.
It is not known when or by whom, that the Carrivetragh windmill was built, but by the surveying of the first ordnance survey map in 1837 the windmill is featured as ‘in ruins’. This windmill is unique in that it was only one of five, ever recorded in Co. Monaghan. Only the tower now remains which was once crowned with a rotating cap and sails.
The Benson family were resident in Carriveetragh in the early 1800’s and a Samuel Benson was a manufacturer of agricultural implements and ploughs at his water-mill at Stonebridge in the 1840’s. Richard Benson of Carriveetragh was a blacksmith who operated the mill at Lackey which would in later years become McMahon’s, the manufacturers of the famous ‘Auld McMahon’s Spade’.