Mona Windmill Amlwch · Isle of Anglesey · Wales

Mona Windmill stands in a commanding position overlooking Amlwch harbour. It is also known as Melin-y-Borth or Mona Mill. Its elevated harbour-side setting, height, and construction make it one of the most distinctive windmill survivals on Anglesey.

The mill was built in 1816 by the Paynter family. The Paynters had moved from Cornwall to Amlwch in the later eighteenth century and became prominent locally, with John Paynter active as a corn merchant. The mill was built during the period when Amlwch had expanded rapidly because of the industrial boom created by the Parys Mountain copper mines. It served the needs of the growing port and mining settlement.

Mona Windmill is the largest of the Anglesey windmill towers. It stands about 18 metres high and is unusual in being predominantly brick-built. Coflein describes the tower as consisting of two cellar storeys below ground level, a ground storey of rubblestone, and a tapered brick tower above containing three further storeys and the cap floor. Cadw identifies it as a complete early nineteenth-century windmill tower and notes its special interest as the largest of the Anglesey windmill towers and as the only one built predominantly of brick.

The mill later lost its cap, sails, and machinery and now survives as a tall unroofed tower. Its height and position continue to make it a conspicuous feature above Amlwch harbour. Mona Windmill was listed at Grade II in 1974 as an important early nineteenth-century windmill tower, one of the surviving tower mills from the period when more than 40 windmills worked on Anglesey.