It belongs to a limekiln, that workhorse of the nineteenth-century Irish agricultural landscape, and it survives in enough detail to make the mechanics of the thing legible even now.

Limekilns were used to burn limestone at high temperatures, reducing it to quicklime that farmers spread on acidic soils to improve fertility. This example dates from the mid to late nineteenth century and follows a form common to the period. The front wall carries a central arched recess, roughly 1.9 metres high and two metres wide, with an inner lintelled arch and sloping slabs set to the rear; this is the draw arch, the opening through which the finished lime was raked out once burning was complete. A horizontal ledge crosses the face of the wall at 2.7 metres above ground, and the structure is stabilised by a low buttress at its eastern end and a taller retaining wall to the west. At the back, a long earthen ramp allowed workers to load the stone-lined funnel from above, alternating layers of limestone and fuel. That funnel, 1.6 metres in diameter, is partly infilled now, but its outline is still visible. The whole arrangement is built of random rubble, meaning uncut or loosely shaped stone laid without formal coursing, which gives the wall its rough, organic texture.