Kiln - lime, Kenmare, Co. Kerry
Co. Kerry |
Kilns
On the western edge of Kenmare, close to the eastern bank of the Finnihy River, there is a limekiln that is difficult to overlook once you know what you are looking at.
At roughly eight metres high and eight metres wide across its front elevation, it is considerably larger than the modest field kilns that dot the Irish countryside, and the quality of its construction sets it apart further still. A lime kiln is an industrial furnace used to burn limestone at high temperatures, converting it to quicklime for use in agriculture and building, and most surviving examples are relatively rough affairs. This one is not.
Dating apparently from the mid to late nineteenth century, the kiln was built with some care and expense. Its arched recess, which tapers from about 2.3 metres wide at the front to 1.2 metres at the rear over a depth of 3.4 metres, is formed from cut and dressed limestone voussoirs, the wedge-shaped stones that give a masonry arch its structural integrity, with a relieving arch above to distribute the load. The interior was further reinforced with iron braces, an unusual refinement suggesting whoever commissioned it expected it to work hard and last. A small stoking hole, just 0.2 metres high, survives near the base, though the funnel above is now obscured by accumulated debris. A more recent concrete kiln stands to the south, disused like its older neighbour, the two structures forming a kind of compressed industrial history of lime production in the area.