Molino de Gofio del Risco de las Pencas, Tenerife

The Molino de Gofio del Risco de las Pencas, also known as Molino de Ruiz, Molino de la Grieta, or Molino de Pico la Grieta, is an old hydraulic installation for the milling of gofio located on the left slope of the Ruiz ravine, San Juan de la Rambla. It is very close to the TF-5 motorway, at the beginning of the paved road that leads to the neighbourhood of La Vera, under a large natural rock of cylindrical morphology and trachyphonolitic nature called Roque del Molino or Risco de las Pencas. The name derives from the numerous nopales or pencas, as they are known in the Canary Islands, that exist in the vicinity and that were implanted during the hatching of the cochineal in the 19th century.

The facility, which was in operation until 1942, was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 2007 with the category of Ethnological Site. It consists of two buildings with a rectangular floor plan, walls of reddish tuff blocks and masonry, with a tiled roof. The main building, which houses the milling machinery, is characterised by a hipped roof on a framework of hibrons and slats. A mortar bench is attached to the base of the walls and the floor is made of slabs of the same reddish tuff. Under this main enclosure there is a chamber with a vaulted entrance that housed the machinery of the mill: a wooden turbine with blades, which fits into the millstone located on the upper floor and whose movement by the action of the falling water propitiated the rotating movement of that one. The state of conservation of this hydraulic mechanism is quite acceptable. This chamber connects with a large masonry cylinder or "cube", about 9 m high, through which the water falls and allows the mill to operate.

Since 2009, the City Council of San Juan de La Rambla has been undertaking the restoration of the architectural complex and its surroundings, with the intention of making the place a new tourist attraction for the region.