Kiln - lime, Garryduff, Co. Cork
Co. Cork |
Kilns
Tucked into a quarry at Garryduff in County Cork, a lime kiln survives in partial ruin, its arched recess still legible against the surrounding stone.
Lime kilns were once commonplace across the Irish countryside, used to burn limestone at high temperatures to produce quicklime, which farmers then spread on acidic soils to improve their fertility, or which builders mixed into mortar. Most have crumbled entirely or been absorbed back into the landscape, so even a fragmentary example carries a certain quiet interest.
This particular kiln retains its arched front recess, measuring roughly 2.3 metres high and 2.5 metres wide, with a depth of about 1.5 metres. Above it, the funnel-shaped bowl into which the limestone and fuel were loaded reaches a maximum diameter of 2.15 metres before narrowing towards the base, where the burnt lime would have been drawn off. The rear of the kiln has collapsed, which limits what can be read of the original structure, but the front elevation gives a reasonable impression of how these industrial features were typically built directly into a quarry face, using the surrounding rock both as a structural support and as a convenient source of raw material.