Lime kilns were once a fundamental feature of the rural Irish landscape, used to burn limestone at high temperatures to produce quicklime, which farmers spread on acidic soils to improve fertility or used in the making of mortar. This example is not a ruin in the romantic sense; it is simply a structure that was built for hard practical work, used until it was no longer needed, and then left to the quarry that partly gave it purpose.

What remains gives a reasonable sense of its original form. The front face measures 5.6 metres across, with an arched recess two metres wide, which would have been the draw arch where workers raked out the processed lime from the base of the kiln. The funnel at the top, where limestone and fuel were loaded in alternating layers, has collapsed entirely, and the broader structure is partially buried under growth. The siting inside a quarry is logical: raw limestone could be extracted and burned on the same spot, reducing the effort of transporting heavy material any distance.