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We met on Tuesday evening the 11th August, to visit Raymond Whites Mill outside Ballinaspittle in County Cork. We had 8 cars in total and after a very nice drive from the Travelodge we met at Raymond’s home, where he had kindly set up parking spaces for us complete with traffic cones “Traffic Management “ at its best!.

We than had an enthralling tour of the flax weaving mill that Raymond has restored himself over the last 25 Years. Restoration is possibly the wrong word because as Raymond showed us, he spent many years digging up the various stone slabs, Oak Drive shafts, and original stone to verify what he had and how it was originally constructed.

Raymond epitomises the word enthusiast, rebuilding the old mill by hand utilising traditional construction methods, the roof of the mill has no nails, and every beam was individually numbered and secured by driven wooden pegs, as it would have been, back in the day.

Raymond’s Piece de resistance is the fully working water wheel he has constructed, it is so finally balanced and constricted that literally a hose pipe of water is sufficient to get the wheel turning, evoking memories of flax weaving as it would have been done over 300 years ago.

Raymond is also an active historian, sea diving on many wrecks off the old head of Kinsale, and an excellent raconteur – he held us spell bound for over 2 hours while we toured his Mill and Stunning Gardens.

Many Thanks to Raymond – we really appreciate it

Team Porsche Club Ireland


17/09/2015