This is a lime kiln, the kind of industrial structure that once punctuated the Irish rural landscape in considerable numbers, yet is now so thoroughly absorbed back into the ground that many pass it without a second glance.

Lime kilns were used to convert limestone into quicklime through sustained burning, the resulting powder then spread across fields to reduce soil acidity or mixed into mortar for building. The Shanavoher example is a reasonably substantial one. Its earthen front elevation faces south, measuring roughly three metres high and seven metres wide, with a stone arch built into the façade and a shallow recess about 1.3 metres deep at its centre. That recess is the draw arch, where fuel and limestone were loaded and the finished lime eventually raked out. Above it, the funnel or pot where the burning took place is now completely overgrown, the whole upper portion of the structure merged into the surrounding bank. The earthen construction is typical of the form: kilns were often built into hillsides or mounds to retain heat and make loading from above more straightforward.