Kiln - lime, Caherlevoy, Co. Limerick
Co. Limerick |
Kilns
Half a stone-lined funnel sitting in rough pasture is not the most dramatic thing you will find in County Limerick, but it is precisely the kind of survival that rewards a second look.
This is what remains of a lime kiln at Caherlevoy, a structure that once served a very practical agricultural purpose: burning limestone at high temperatures to produce quicklime, which farmers spread on acidic soils to improve fertility or mixed into mortar for building. Most of the kiln has collapsed into rubble mounds, but enough of the funnel, the bowl-shaped chamber into which fuel and stone were loaded, remains to give a sense of how it once functioned.
According to the site record compiled by Denis Power and uploaded in August 2011, only the northern half of the stone-lined funnel survives, measuring roughly 1.4 metres in diameter and standing to a height of approximately 2.6 metres. The kiln occupies a south-facing slope, a sensible position that would have offered some shelter from prevailing winds during firing. Behind the main structure, an earthen ramp measuring 8.2 metres north to south and 7.5 metres east to west is still intact. This ramp was a standard feature of lime kilns, allowing workers to haul cartloads of limestone and fuel up to the top of the kiln and tip them directly into the funnel from above, rather than lifting material by hand.
The site sits in rough pasture, so expect uneven ground and the kind of low vegetation that tends to accumulate around abandoned agricultural structures. The earthen ramp to the rear is probably the most legible feature on the ground, giving the clearest impression of the kiln's original scale and working layout. The rubble mounds surrounding the surviving funnel half mark where the rest of the structure once stood. There is no formal access or signage, and the site is not a scheduled visitor attraction, so anyone heading out to find it should treat it as a piece of working agricultural archaeology sitting quietly in an ordinary field.