I went in expecting a mildly interesting day… and came out feeling like a slightly underqualified medieval blacksmith. Patterson’s Spade Mill is absolutely brilliant. Two people per forge, all fires roaring, and somehow the instructors make swinging red-hot metal look like the easiest thing in the world—while I’m there questioning my life choices after my third wonky hammer strike. Thankfully, they were always on hand with guidance (and patience) to rescue my many “creative interpretations” of the craft. Safety is clearly a big deal—there’s a steady soundtrack of “hot stuff coming through!” which keeps you on your toes and adds to the authentic, slightly chaotic charm of the place. We made a small knife (mine looked like a pirate knife! ) and a surprisingly decent poker with fancy twists that I’m still proud of. Hard work, but incredibly satisfying. Bonus points for the setting—I brought a ploughman’s lunch and sat by the river at a picnic table, which was the perfect break in the middle of all the hammering. All in all, a fantastic hands-on day. Learned loads, laughed plenty, and would highly recommend it to anyone—even if, like me, your craftsmanship ends up being… “rustic.”

A fascinating interesting day spent at this lovely location. Attended an day's Blacksmithing course here. Well lead and instructive activity. Would recommend to everyone. The instructors and staff were welcoming, warm, friendly and approachable. We made two items at an relaxed pace under their guidance. Health & safety instructions and equipment in good order.

My husband, teen son and I did the interactive blacksmithing workshop this past Saturday and it was TERRIFIC! Michael and his assistant Garth first took us on a tour of this historical mill and showed us how spades are made. It was fascinating to see how the mill was built and how it's powered and it's awesome that the National Trust has ensured its continuity. Then they helped us make our own fire pokers using the forge. It was exciting, educational, and challenging but they made sure we did everything safely and our pokers came out excellent (well mostly). I think the only reason this experience isn't oversubscribed is that people don't know about it. Hopefully they'll be able to continue it as it's a great opportunity to do something unique and fascinating. Highly recommend.

Well just want say that this was a remarkable place of Irish history we turn up and due to some flooding in the winter it was closed but one of the volunteers said as we come all this way go and ask micheal if he show you around 😉 we went a meet him such wonderful man he explained that there do some work shops at the weekend on metal forging for people who want to do metal work and has the mill pond was damaged there could not make many spades but was happy to show us how it's done this was very interesting he also told us the the king uses there spads and gives them to members of his staff when there retired Michael knew so much just want to say big thank you to him well done to the national trust for a great bit of history well worth a vist

This is a little known national trust property. Well worth a visit. You’ll never look at a spade again in the same way. This place is lucky to still be here so do support it. It is believed to be the last one in all of Europe! The guides know their stuff and the demonstrations will show you what life in a spade mill was like over a hundred heads ago, little has changed. The mill includes the original race which powers the water turbine.