Kiln - lime, Knockeens, Co. Kerry

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Kilns

Kiln – lime, Knockeens, Co. Kerry

Along a minor road in Knockeens, County Kerry, a substantial sandstone structure is built directly into the field boundary, its face turned westward towards passing traffic.

It is easy to mistake for a fragment of old walling, but the arched recess at its base, nearly two metres high and over two metres deep, gives it away as something more purposeful. This is a lime kiln, a type of industrial furnace once found across the Irish countryside, where limestone was burned at high temperatures to produce quicklime, a material essential for fertilising acidic soils, for mortar, and for whitewashing farm buildings.

The kiln's façade, built from randomly coursed sandstone rubble, stands roughly three metres high and five metres wide, dimensions that speak to a structure designed for real agricultural work rather than domestic use. At the rear of the arched recess, sloping slabs directed the draw of air through the burning charge above. The funnel at the top, where limestone and fuel were loaded in alternating layers, measures just under two metres in diameter and remains visible despite the heavy overgrowth that has colonised the crown of the kiln. That combination of a well-preserved arch at eye level and a funnel still legible beneath the vegetation gives a clear sense of how the full structure would have functioned, drawing air from below while heat rose through the load above.

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Pete F
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