Geopark: Tranekær Castle Mill
People used to say that Langeland had 15 mills, in Danish “15 bøller”, and 15 parishes.
The mills were all windmills because the water streams on this long and narrow island were all quite small. Six of the mills are still preserved. This includes Slotsmøllen near Tranekær, which is on a small ‘hat-shaped hill’ barely one km north of Tranekær estate.
The red body of the mill and the wings, which are also painted red, show the connection to the manor house, which has the same colour. This connection between the estate and the mill is typical. The estate built the current manor mill in 1846, but before that several older mills were located there.
Tranekær Slotsmølle is a so-called Dutch windmill, which is a mill where the mill top with the wings is able to be rotated according to the direction of the wind. In the older type of windmills, called post mills, the whole housing of the mill needed to be rotated, which put a limitation on the size of the mills. The lower part of the mill with a drive-through for wagons is built of masonry, while the upper part of the mill is constructed from wood and covered with wood shingles.
The operation of Tranekær Slotsmølle stopped after World War II and the mill began to dilapidate. Today the mill is owned and run by a mill guild and after several renovations, the mill appears well-kept and once again able to mill grain using wind power.