Where a typical field kiln might be a rough hollow scraped into a bank, this one presents a formal front elevation almost six and a half metres wide, with buttresses flanking a tall arched recess and a stone-lined funnel above, all of it built against a natural limestone outcrop as though the landscape itself were part of the design.

A lime kiln is, at its simplest, a furnace for burning limestone into quicklime, a material used for centuries to neutralise acidic soil, whitewash buildings, and produce mortar. The Carrigeen example makes unusually deliberate use of its site. The builders chose the north face of a limestone outcrop, where the ground drops sharply away to the south and east, and constructed random-rubble walls around an earthen core to form the main body of the kiln. A ramp approaches from the west, giving access to the top, which is enclosed by a low wall and open to the south. This arrangement allowed workers to tip limestone and fuel, usually coal or wood, down into the funnel from above, while the arched recess at the front, with its lintelled opening to the rear, provided the draw point where the burned lime could be raked out. The rear of that recess is now filled with rubble, but the overall structure remains legible. The scale and the care given to the buttressing suggest this was not a casual farm improvement but a more purposeful, possibly commercial, operation.