The result is a piece of industrial architecture that feels almost geological itself, as though it grew out of the hillside rather than was constructed on top of it.

Lime kilns were the workhorses of the improving agricultural era, used to burn limestone at high temperatures and produce quicklime, which farmers spread on acidic soils to raise their fertility. This example is substantial. The south-facing front wall stands around six metres high and stretches roughly twelve metres wide, with a carefully formed arched recess at its base. The arch is built with cut-stone voussoirs, the wedge-shaped blocks that give a masonry arch its structural integrity, and the recess itself runs nearly four metres deep, with sloping slabs at the rear. A small iron-surrounded opening, or ope, sits at the base of the recess, through which the burned lime could be raked out. Above, a brick-lined funnel roughly two and a half metres in diameter formed the burning chamber itself, where alternating layers of coal and limestone would have been loaded from behind. A ramp once approached the rear of the kiln from the east to allow that loading, though it has since been partially removed. The proximity to Carriganoura Castle, a medieval structure nearby, makes for an unusual layering of eras in a single compact site, with a ruined fortification and a piece of Victorian agricultural industry sitting almost side by side.