ABOUT  BUSHMILLS

The village became a focus not only for corn and flax but also the production of nails and farming implements including award winning spades which where exhibited in England and Europe. The river powered  the first 'public' hydro-electric tramway in the world pioneered by Colonel William Trail of nearby Ballyclough, it derived its power from water turbines at the Walkmill Falls. The river features in ancient Ulster legends and writings. It was  referred to as one of the ten rivers of Ireland that were encountered by the first settlers on the North Coast and known as 'Inbiur Buosse bruchtait srotha' (River Bush of the bursting torrents). In another it is referred to for a 'great abundance of nuts which were found on the banks of the Boyne and the Buais (Bush)'.  The  'Book of  Leinster'  tells  of a master smithy called Echen who lived near the Bush, he had a son named Amergin who had been dumb since birth. At the age of fourteen Amergin found his voice and was said to have had great wisdom, he become the chief poet to the high king of Ulster and was known as 'the good poet from the Buis (Bush) in the north'. A description of his clothes reads: 'he wore a blue, fine bordered shirt next to the skin, with carved and interlaced clasps of white bronze, with real buttons of burnished red gold in its opening and breast. He wore above it a cloak mottled with the splendor of all the most beautiful colours'.