The one at Cappaveha in County Galway is a case in point: a structure whose function was once entirely practical, bound up in the chemistry of farming and the demands of the land, now sitting in a landscape that has largely moved on without it.

Lime kilns were used to burn limestone at high temperatures, producing quicklime that farmers spread across acidic soils to improve fertility and drainage. The practice was widespread in Ireland from at least the seventeenth century through to the nineteenth, when industrially produced lime became easier to obtain and the small local kilns fell out of use. They were typically built into a hillside or embankment, with a draw arch at the base through which the burnt lime could be raked out, and a bowl or pot at the top where the limestone and fuel were loaded. Many were built close to limestone outcrops or along routeways where fuel and stone could be brought together without too much effort. The Cappaveha example belongs to this tradition, a functional piece of rural infrastructure whose presence marks the historical effort to work what can be thin and unforgiving land in the west of Ireland.