The site sits alongside what is now an ordinary car park, though that unremarkable stretch of tarmac was once a mill pond, largely back-filled at some point to serve more modern purposes. A small portion of the original pond survives, an easy thing to miss if you do not already know to look.

A deed dated 1718 refers to an ancient mill race and watercourse leading to an iron mill at Milltown, a detail brought to light through the research of Rob Goodbody and compiled by Geraldine Stout. The language of that deed, describing the race as already ancient by the early eighteenth century, suggests the mill had been in operation for some time before the document was drawn up. The mill race, a channelled diversion of water used to drive the mill mechanism, drew its supply from the Slang river at Windy Arbour, directing the flow along an artificial course to power what would have been a significant industrial operation. Iron milling was demanding work requiring a reliable and controlled water source, and the Slang, modest as it is today, was evidently sufficient for the purpose.

The surviving remains are on private ground within the garden of Bankside Cottages, so any visit is necessarily a matter of viewing from the lane rather than exploring the site directly. Mill Lane itself is a short and easily walked street, and the relationship between the lane, the cottages, and the car park beyond becomes more legible once you know the history of the water management that shaped this corner of south Dublin. The fragment of mill pond that remains gives the clearest physical indication of what was once here, a reminder that the Slang, now largely culverted and overlooked, once drove industry along its banks.