Felincamlais (NPRN 413261), in the upper reaches of Cwm Camlais-fawr, a tributary of the Usk, appears in seventeenth century records of the Penpont Estate. A grant of 1671 referring to milling rights there describes the mill as `Melin ycha ar Camlais?, or `upper mill on the Camlais?, implying the coeval presence of a `lower mill? somewhere downstream near its confluence with the Usk.
The Ordnance Survey first-edition 25-inch plan (1870s) shows a roofless rectangular building at the given NGR. The Tithe Award map (1840) likewise shows a structure here but it is not present on the OS second edition (c.1900). On the ground the site is now occupied by a hollow seemingly cut into the rising ground of the stream valley, some 10-15m from the stream bank, near a point where the bank has slumped. It measures about 5m across and 1.5m deep. It contains rubble, some of it crudely dressed, and suggests a building which has been dug out. The occupants of nearby Abercamlais House recall a tradition that there was once a mill at this location. Mill stones, supposedly from the site, form garden ornaments in the grounds of the house. However, no traces of a water-control system were identified near the hollow. This could be accounted for by landscaping and tree-planting after the mill had gone out of use. About 100m east of the hollow, on higher ground at SN96432884, the OS map shows a roofed building but this too has now gone.
By 1840 Felincamlais was being referred to as `Abercamlais Mill? despite its upstream location. It is likely therefore that the original `Abercamlais Mill? had gone out of use in the period 1671-1840, the name transferred to Felincamlais, then this too went out of use soon after 1840.

David Leighton, RCAHMW, 1 April 2011