The structure is defined by a semicircular drystone wall, standing just one metre high and spanning roughly 1.2 metres across, built directly into the earthen slope as though the land itself were doing half the work of containing it.

Lime kilns like this one were once a familiar feature of the Irish agricultural landscape. The process was straightforward but labour-intensive: limestone was loaded into the kiln along with fuel, typically turf or coal, and burned at high temperatures to produce quicklime. That quicklime was then spread across fields to reduce soil acidity, improving grazing land and tillage ground. The practice was widespread from at least the seventeenth century onwards, and small farm kilns of this kind served individual holdings or clusters of neighbouring farms. The Derradda example, built into its hillock in the drystone tradition, using stones laid without mortar, represents the more vernacular end of this once-common technology. Its compact dimensions suggest it served a local rather than commercial purpose.