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Spinning and bleaching of linen in Bessbrook has a history reaching back to the mid-17thC. The phase of rapid growth however came in the second half of the 19thC following the purchase of the mill site by the Carlow born Quaker, John Grubb Richardson. Between 1850 and 1880 the present three floored mill, built of local granite, acquired its present form. By 1880 the Bessbrook Mill Company employed 3000 workers on site and another 1,500 out-workers. The mill -like the Northern Ireland textile industry - was at its peak in the forty years between 1880 and 1920. After WWII the linen industry went into economic free fall and the Bessbrook Mill ceased operations in 1972.

The coming of the troubles in the 1970s led to a new phase in the history of the mill. The British Army required a secure base for a barracks and heliport in Republican South Armagh. Though relatively small - anywhere is accessible by car in less than half an hour - the South Armagh area could only be policed from bases supplied from the air. Thousands of flights were made from the heliport situated opposite the Bessbrook Mill, with a helicopter either taking off or landing on average every 9 minutes, day and night.
The coming of peace led to the final abandonment in 2007 of the Bessbrook Mill by the British Army. The heliport was returned to agricultural use. The mill, however, retains many of its sheet steel and barbed wire defences and it is not open to the public.

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