What makes it worth a second look is the arched recess cut into that front face, nearly two metres high and just over two metres wide, with a ledge above it that once supported a lean-to roof. These are not decorative flourishes; they are the functional anatomy of a working industrial structure, and they survive here in reasonable enough form to read clearly.

Lime kilns were a familiar feature of the Irish rural landscape from the seventeenth century onwards, used to burn limestone at high temperatures to produce quicklime, which farmers then spread on acidic soil to improve fertility. The process required a stone-lined funnel, or bowl, into which the limestone and fuel were loaded from the top, with the arched opening at the front serving as the draw hole where the burnt lime was raked out. At Carrigskullihy, that funnel measures 1.65 metres in diameter and the top of the kiln is enclosed by a stone wall, a detail that suggests a reasonably complete structure rather than a ruin reduced to its foundations. Building the kiln into a slope was standard practice, allowing workers to load material from ground level at the top while accessing the draw hole from lower ground at the front, avoiding the need for ladders or scaffolding.