Lime kilns were the workhorses of pre-modern farming, used to burn limestone at high temperatures to produce quicklime, which was then spread on acidic soil to improve fertility or used as a binding agent in mortar. This one is easy to miss, tucked against a northwest-facing slope where trees have grown up around it, but the structure itself is anything but modest.

The front wall rises to 3.8 metres and curves gently inward as it climbs, a functional shape that also gives the kiln an unexpectedly architectural quality. At its base, two narrow passages, each about 1.25 metres high and 0.7 metres wide, are spanned by flat lintels and lead into the interior. These are the draw holes, the openings through which spent ash and finished lime were raked out after firing. Both passages open into a single oval stone-lined funnel, measuring roughly 2.62 metres on its longer axis, where the limestone and fuel were loaded from above and burned together. The oval bowl shape is typical of the form, designed to allow even combustion and to direct the heat efficiently downward toward the draw holes. The proximity to the shoreline may be significant: coastal sites were often chosen for lime kilns in the west of Ireland because limestone or shell could be landed easily by boat, reducing the labour of transport inland.