Learn About the History of Linen-Making in Cookstown

Step back in time at Wellbrook Beetling Mill. Learn about the beetling process and discover the role the mill played in Ireland’s linen history. In a remote and green valley of County Tyrone stands Wellbrook Beetling Mill, now a lone reminder of the flourishing linen industry which once operated around Corkhill, near Cookstown. Nestling in an idyllic wooded glen offering lovely walks and picnic spots this, this last working water-powered linen beetling mill stands as a reminder of Ulster’s once-flourishing linen industry that dates back to the late seventeenth century and offers a unique experience for all the family.

By nineteenth-century Northern Ireland was a major manufacturer and exporter of quality Irish linen. Flax was farmed, harvested and scutched (a process which made flax more fibrous), before being spun into yarn which was woven into linen cloth. Beetling is the final process in the manufacture of linen; it is when the linen is pounded by wooden hammers, called beetles. This pounding tightens the weave and gives the cloth its characteristic sheen. At Wellbrook, water from the Ballinderry River turns the water wheel to power the cogs, releasing the wooden beetles to crash down on the linen, giving the cloth its characteristic smoothness and sheen.

• Adult – £5.00
• Children – FREE!
• Group (Minimum Size 15) – £4.00
• Mill tours available on Sundays
• Mill race walks are available every other day of the week
• Located just 10 minutes outside of Cookstown