circa 600 AD
Water mills
An important economic development, which had probably already occurred during the 6th century, was the importation of water mill technology from Britain. The new mills were constructed using advanced carpentry and building skills, and were vastly more efficient than the hand-worked milling stones – quern stones – that they partly replaced. The mills ground the cereals grown by local farmers, and as the milling process was more efficient and produced more and better grain, the technology helped bring about a growth in population. Unfortunately no examples of such mills have so far been uncovered on the Dingle peninsula, but they must have existed here.
