Designers get back to beetling with a little help from Ireland’s oldest linen mill

Amy and Joel Anderson of Kindred of Ireland are enthusiastic supporters and users of beetled linen, produced in Co Derry

Mon Nov 02 2026 - 06:09 • 4 MIN READ

The thunderous sound of machinery like the pounding of hundreds of Lambeg drums hits you before you even enter the world’s only beetling mill. Situated in the historic village of Upperlands in Co Derry, about an hour’s drive from Belfast, the area was once home to more than 600 people who worked in William Clark & Son, Ireland’s oldest linen mill, established on the river Clady in 1736. There is a wonderful photograph on display in the adjacent Flax Café Visitor Centre taken in the early 1920s of the staff all dressed up for their annual outing to Portrush.

We are here with fashion designer Amy Anderson and her husband Joel of Kindred of Ireland, who are now among the most enthusiastic supporters and users of beetled linen, having rediscovered its shimmering qualities and craftsmanship. Amy’s grandmother Winnie had worked in Moygashel Linen Mills with Paul Costelloe, and it was memories of her stories that led Amy to found her brand in 2020 using linen sourced locally.

At around the same time, Sarah Burton, then artistic director of Alexander McQueen, had visited Clarks to understand the process, persuading them to beetle finish linen for the brand’s spring summer 2020 collection.

The machinery is awesome. Huge cast iron and vertical wooden beams (made from sycamore or beech tree trunks) called wipers rotate rolls of dampened linen, which are systematically pounded by 40 giant wooden hammers called beetles. This flattens the fabric’s fibres and makes the linen lustrous and strong. It was once part of standard requirements, according to author Bruce Clark, scion of the family, and used in tailoring for parts of suits to create shape without weight.

When William Clark & Sons was liquidated in 2024, the beetling mill and all its machinery, which had lain idle for a year, was bought by one of its biggest customers, Wilson Agri, for its coating capacities. Andrew Wilson has now had the engines revved up and made the mill a viable enterprise, “saving something very special from our history” in the process, he has said. He has ambitious plans for establishing a linen festival in the area.

Kindred of Ireland’s shiny, stylish clothing from beetled linen in limited quantities has been printed and even coated with gold leaf, as the Andersons have experimented with beetling and pushed the boundaries of what’s possible. For summer their pressed flower print was brought to life on linen where it was beetled under the guiding hand of the last remaining master beetler in Ireland, Willie Smyth.

“The relationship with linen enables us to push limits,” says Amy’s husband and business partner Joel. “It enables you to go really deep with it. Different weights and different techniques breed innovation, and historically the beetling process came from innovation – how did you make linen sturdier for people working in the fields? So you can know the fabric intimately, but push it innovatively.”

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Their latest campaign for winter, combining linen with tweed and knitwear, is called Sunday Best, photographed in Mullaghfad Church, a remote early 19th century Church of Ireland building near Fivemiletown, Co Tyrone. “Sunday best was the one day of the week that was different – you dressed up. So there is nostalgia for things that were kept for good – I think we have lost a bit of that,” says Joel.

The theme runs through everything in playful, often mischievous ways. Tinsel tweeds including a cape and puff shorts are flecked with lurex, white “choir boy” shirts have big bows, “stained glass” dresses come in Emblem linen from Wexford, and what’s called “the anointed coat” is in pink and red beetled linen. “The bell ringing dress” is black beetled linen, and the “locking up jacket” in knobby Mourne tweed.

“The new luxury is handmade with the human touch,” says Joel, who explains that everything is made locally with seamstresses who take pride in making beautiful clothes. “And you develop a deep relationship with Stephen [of Emblem Weavers] and Mario [Mourne Textiles] – that is what gets lost in supply chains – so you feel a responsibility to them.”

[ From the archive: Weaving a winning style with Irish linen and flaxOpens in new window ]

Amy’s design style, with its capacious but practical proportions, has been described as Japan versus Copenhagen, reflecting its oversized shapes which are fundamentally functional. She comes up with the concepts and has enjoyed creating new ways with an almost forgotten craft. Beetled linen now makes up about 30 per cent of her collections, which currently include a shimmering black shirt, an oversized jacket with slouchy high waisted trousers, along with some bridal looks. Her new take on the classic Aran sweater, their first knit, has been worked in linen and cotton rather than wool and features a crochet-edged collar.

“We want to keep going deeper rather than wider, building on our bespoke pink beetled linen and our new tweeds this season,” says Joel. “And strengthening a supply chain that stays local, working closely with family run mills and makers we know by name.”

Visit the Kindred of Ireland shop at 52 Hill Street in Belfast’s Cathedral Quarter, or online kindredofireland.com

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