Ireland's windmill tradition was always sparse compared to Britain or the Netherlands, and the mills that did operate here tended to cluster in areas where waterways were unreliable or where coastal exposure made wind a more dependable resource than moving water. Mayo's Atlantic-facing landscape, relentlessly windy for much of the year, would have made it a plausible location for such a structure, even if examples are relatively rare in the archaeological record.

Windmills in an Irish context were typically tower mills, cylindrical stone structures whose rotating cap and sails could be turned to face the prevailing wind. They fell out of use gradually through the nineteenth century as imported grain undercut local milling and as steam-powered mills drew trade towards larger towns. What tends to survive is the tower itself, stripped of its machinery and cap, sometimes repurposed as a store or simply left to settle into the surrounding ground. The Rusheen example is recorded as a monument, suggesting that some physical trace remains, though the precise condition and form of that trace is not currently documented in publicly available records.