Ta' Randu Windmill - Gozo
History and construction description of the Ta' Randu Windmill, Gozo.
📍 Location
The coordinates of Ta' Randu Windmill are:
- 36.038441, 14.311553
Ta' Randu Windmill (on Triq Grunju, on the road Triq il-Wileg, Qala) — full history, construction and restoration
Quick ID & location
Name(s): Ta’ Randu Windmill (often just “Ta’ Randu” or “Qala Windmill”).
Place: Qala, on Triq il-Wileġ (the countryside road between Qala and Nadur). It’s visible from the road but the site is in private ownership / not generally open to visitors.
Summary timeline & builders
Built: 1853 (mid-19th century).
Builder / early owner(s): Built by the Camilleri brothers (Lorenzo, Giuseppe and “Randu” / Ferdinand Camilleri are recorded in local sources as the family associated with this mill). The Camilleri family were active mill-builders/operators in Gozo in the 1850s.
Working life: Sources vary for the precise end date of regular milling — some local records say it remained in commercial use into the early 20th century, while summary lists put its working life longer in some entries. (See “Discrepancies” below.)
Function & social role
Ta’ Randu was a rural grain mill serving the Qala/Nadur hinterland — grinding local wheat/barley for bread and household use. As with other Gozitan mills of the same era, it was a local small-scale commercial operation (often family-run).
Architecture & construction details
Type & plan
Round (tower) mill, the standard Maltese/Gozo form: a cylindrical stone tower set on a low base of service rooms (storage, bakery, miller’s accommodation). Photographs and registry notes characterise it as a round/mound mill.
Materials & technique
Built in local limestone with traditional lime mortar — vernacular Gozo construction. Masonry is plain/rural rather than ornate (typical for privately funded mid-19th-century mills).
Mechanics (historic arrangement)
Historically fitted with a wooden windshaft and sail arms (sweeps) with sailcloth or lattice frames; inside there would have been the brake wheel, vertical shaft and the runner/bedstone pair plus wooden gearing, sack hoists and storage chutes — the standard mechanical arrangement for island tower mills. No public source documents surviving original internal machinery for this mill.
Later life & current condition
The mill ceased working when motorised milling and changing economics made small windmills uneconomic. It has been used as a private property (some visitor photos and local notes show it behind gated private access) and its sails are still in place. Recent tourist/photo pages indicate it’s not generally open to the public.
Discrepancies & source notes
End-of-use date: summary lists (Wikipedia’s compiled list) show varying end dates for different Gozo windmills; some entries elsewhere suggest a longer working life for Qala mills. The specialist Windmills of Malta entry and the University of Malta thesis most reliably record the 1853 build and Camilleri association but don’t publish a single authoritative “last used” year for Ta’ Randu. When precise end dates or measured drawings are needed, the Town Hall / Notarial Acts or MEPA files are the best primary sources to consult.
