That kind of integration is practical rather than incidental, and it tells you something about how these structures were sited. The kiln's north-facing front rises to around six metres high and six metres wide, a considerable presence for a piece of rural industrial infrastructure that most people drive past without a second glance.

A lime kiln was a relatively simple but essential piece of technology in pre-modern and early modern Ireland. Quarried limestone was loaded in at the top, fuel was fed through a stoking-hole at the base, and the heat broke the stone down into quicklime, used to improve acid soils or to make mortar. The Cahermone example preserves that sequence in physical form. The recess at the front, where the burned lime would be drawn out, is corbelled, meaning it is roofed by courses of overlapping stone rather than a true arch, with the rear wall formed by a single large slab. The arch opening into this recess was at some point filled with masonry, though it was originally carried by a wooden lintel. Above, a brick-lined funnel once drew the heat upward; it has since been infilled. A stone wall encloses the top of the kiln, completing a structure that, despite its age and disuse, retains most of its original fabric.