Dovey Furnace is a fine example of amid eighteenth century charcoal iron-furnace. There is an eighteenth century charcoal barn nearby at Grid Reference SN 6849 9510. In its present condition following restoration, the site is a hybrid: the flue is from its early days as an early eighteenth century iron furnace and the thirty foot (9.14 m) diameter overshot waterwheel is from its later use as a sawmill. It is thought also that it was a fulling mill at one time.

From early drawings it has been observed that the original wheel which drove the bellows was enclosed in a small building. The site of the casting house, which would have been an open structure, projected westward from the furnace.

Claire Parry, RCAHMW, 15 June 2011.

Source: Association for Industrial Archaeology: A Guide to the Industrial Archaeology of Mid-Wales, 1984