The tower close to the top of Parys Mountain is a windmill formerly used for pumping water from the copper mines below. It was built in 1878 to assist a steam engine with pumping and winding at Cairns shaft some 200 feet away, and was unique in Anglesey in having five sails.

The rubblestone battered tower was, when visited in 1975, 10.8 metres high with a cellar 2.3 metres deep, and 6.5 metres internal diameter at ground level with walls 0.7 metres thick. Two timbers, 0.30 by 0.35 metres and 1.2 metres apart, spanned the interior at ground level. Unusually there were three doorways.

W J Crompton, RCAHMW, 3 September 2008.

The Parys Mountain Windmilll was built in 1878 by Captain Hughes in order to supplement power from an adjacent steam engine. The power was used to assist pumping water from the Cairns Shaft at the Parys Mountain workings, which as it grew ever deeper was more at risk of flooding, but also to power lifting machinery for both the miners and the ore in the Cairns shaft. In 1880 a new steam engine was inserted into the Cairns engine House, and was connected to the windmill by flat wooden rods, allowing the use of windpower to continue and thus save on the costs of coal. The windmill was closed in 1904, when working at the mined ceased.

The survival of the windmill is good, with walls standing to their full height. Its historic interest comes from its industrial use in association with the mines, and from the fact that it was driven by five, rather than the traditional four, sails. As of 2009, there is a bid by the Amlwch Industrial Heritage Trust to conserve the building and make it watertight.

S Fielding 14th December 2009

Parys Mountain Windmill has recently become the focal point for the Copper Kingdom tourism initiative promoting the former industrial port of Amlwch and its wider landscape.

L. Osborne, 29th February 2012.