A developer has applied for permission to demolish most of the listed buildings at Hilden Mill, near Lisburn.

A consultant for PJK Developments told BBC News NI that it would not be financially viable to redevelop the site without demolition.

An application for listed building approval has been submitted to Lisburn and Castlereagh Borough Council.

The mill has been listed since 1989 and a number of redevelopment projects have been proposed since it closed in 2006.

However, none of these were advanced and the buildings were repeatedly vandalized and set on fire, most recently in May of this year.

Developers are now seeking permission to demolish all but two of the remaining structures on the site.

They hope the other two buildings can be preserved and redeveloped for community use.

Regarding the mill structures they requested to demolish, the consultant told BBC News NI that they had received reports from various engineers and surveyors and that “the buildings were found to be completely and utterly uneconomical to restore”.

He added: “The intention is that if we get consent to demolish the buildings, we will then make a positive planning application to redevelop the site for residential purposes, a significant proportion of which is likely to be social housing.”

Independent councilor Gary Hynds said Hilden Mill was of great historical importance to the Lisburn area.

“At least some of the history has to be preserved,” he said.

“I would never support tearing it all down.”

Mr Hynds said he had been in contact with developers to urge them to keep some of the buildings for community use.

He cited the example of Hilden School, which is currently being redeveloped to house a tearoom, nursery and heritage displays.

The councilor explained that he was not opposed to the partial redevelopment of the mill complex for residential use, but would like more details on the type of housing proposed.

“I support the idea of ​​co-ownership which gives people in the area more of a chance to get on the housing ladder,” he said.

Hilden Mill is a 24 acre former factory on the outskirts of Lisburn overlooking the River Lagan.

The site was used as a linen bleaching green until it was taken over by industrialist William Barbour in 1823.

Barbour’s father had emigrated from Scotland some 40 years earlier and set up a linen thread business in nearby Lisburn.

William Barbour built a water-powered mill at Hilden, establishing a company that would become one of the world’s largest producers of linen yarn.

The Barbours employed many thousands of people at Hilden over the decades and built a model village for the workforce.

These included hundreds of homes, two schools, a community hall, a village sports pitch and a children’s playground.

In the 1990s, Hilden Mill merged with international firm Coats Ltd and became known as the Coats Barbour mill, producing specialist yarns for the automotive and upholstery industries.

But by 2006, its market declined and the yarn factory site closed with the loss of 85 jobs.

Since then, various owners have tried to redevelop the mill, but have failed.

A the previous plan to build more than 600 homes on the site received building permit in 2009.

However, construction did not proceed and the building permit has since expired.

In recent years, the site has been repeatedly targeted by vandals and arsonists.

In 2011, 60 firefighters tackled a major fire which severely damaged the last three floors of the mill.

A decade later, arsonists targeted the mill twice within two months, the first of which destroyed a section of its roof.

The most recent fire in May 2024 caused extensive damage to some of the remaining structures.

It took more than 40 firefighters and an aerial apparatus to bring the flames under control.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) confirmed at the time that the fire was also being treated as deliberate.