Cemaes Mill Cemaes Bay · Isle of Anglesey · Wales

Cemaes Mill stands near Cemaes Bay, set back from the west side of Ffordd y Felin, the road leading south-west from the A5025 roundabout towards Llanfechell. It is a full-height three-storey tower windmill built of local rubble masonry and later rendered. The building retains much of its original tower form despite later domestic conversion.

The windmill was built in 1828 on land belonging to Hugh Williams. Its construction coincided with improvements to the port of Cemaes, made to support increased trade with Liverpool. In 1842 the mill was being run by Messrs Jones and Co. By 1851 John Williams had taken over and continued to run the mill for around two decades. Before 1871 William Rowlands became the principal miller, with John Williams still living nearby and assisting with the work. Rowlands was the son of William Rowlands of Melin Drylliau, and belonged to the well-known Anglesey milling family. After William Rowlands died in 1909, the mill was taken over by his nephew John Rowlands.

In 1918 the mill and lands were purchased by John Richard Roberts, son of Isaac Roberts, the Anglesey millwright. By the late 1920s Cemaes Mill was one of the few windmills still operating on Anglesey. A diesel engine was installed in the 1930s, allowing the millstones to continue working through the Second World War. The mill had ceased operating by 1946 and the sails had gone.

The mill was considered for restoration by the local council in 1954, but Melin Llynon was chosen instead. After that decision the machinery was removed for scrap and the tower declined into dereliction by the 1970s. Planning permission was later granted to convert the tower into a dwelling, a process that took several years. By the mid-1980s it was advertised as a holiday home. Cemaes Mill was listed at Grade II in 1952 as a good early nineteenth-century windmill tower and as one of the last Anglesey windmills to continue working.