Melin Gallt y Benddu Llanerchymedd · Isle of Anglesey · Wales

Melin Gallt y Benddu stands just outside Llanerchymedd and is also known as Coedana Windmill or Llanerchymedd Windmill. Its history is unusually strong for an Anglesey windmill because the start and completion of construction are recorded in the diary of the Anglesey landowner William Bulkeley.

The building of the mill began on 8 September 1737 and was completed on 24 October 1738. This makes it the oldest known Anglesey tower windmill for which a precise construction date is recorded. The mill belongs to the early period of tower-windmill development on the island, when wind-powered milling expanded in response to local conditions and the limitations of water-powered sites.

The mill continued working through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It remained in use until the 1890s, when storm damage destroyed or seriously damaged its cap and sails. That storm ended its effective working life as a wind-powered mill. The tower survived and was later converted to domestic use.

In the 1960s the former windmill was renovated as a dwelling. Later records describe it as a converted tower mill and holiday let, retaining its external windmill form while no longer functioning as a mill. Melin Gallt y Benddu remains a significant survival of Anglesey's windmill landscape because of its early date, documented construction chronology, and continued survival in adapted use.