Corn kilns, sometimes called drying kilns, were a practical necessity in the Irish climate, used to dry harvested grain before milling or storage. Wet summers made field-drying unreliable, and so these low stone structures, typically consisting of a flue, a fire pit, and a perforated drying floor above, became a commonplace feature of rural farmsteads from the medieval period onward. That one survives at Moneenally is a small but legible trace of the working agricultural life of the area.