Survey Data
Reg No
40907934
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Social, Technical
Original Use
Kiln
Date
1840 - 1900
Coordinates
225662, 396826
Date Recorded
03/06/2008
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached single-bay lime kiln on rectangular-plan, erected c. 1860. Rubble stone buttress to the west elevation. Now out of use. Constructed of roughly coursed rubble stone masonry. Segmental-headed opening to front (north), the former oven aperture, having red brick voussoirs and soffit, and with wrought-iron lintel to interior over inner opening. Wrought-iron brackets to interior. Former loading chamber on circular-plan to the south having rubble masonry construction. Built into rock outcrop adjacent to road and with former quarries adjacent to the south. Earthen embankment to rear, formerly giving access to loading chamber. Located in the rural countryside to the north\north-west of Castlefinn.
Appraisal
half of the nineteenth-century, survives in good condition and retains its early character. It is well-built using local rubble stone masonry and is an appealing and unassuming element of the agricultural/industrial and social heritage of County Donegal. The embankment to the rear was built/modified to allow for the easy loading of stone through an opening in the roof structure, while the aperture to the front (north) was used to fire the oven to burn the stone and produce lime. It is built adjacent to the north of a former quarry. Lime kilns appear to have come into popular use in Ireland during the eighteenth century and were a very common feature in the rural landscape up until the first decades of the twentieth century. They were used to burn limestone to produce lime, which was used as an agricultural fertilizer and spread on agricultural land, or in construction as a mortar and a render. Lime was also used for lime-washing buildings, particularly farm buildings, as it was regarded as a cleansing agent at the time. This small-scale kiln was probably in use by a local farmer and probably provided lime to small farmers etc. in the immediate environs. Small rural lime kilns started to go out of common usage during the late nineteenth-century with the advent of industrial-scale lime production facilities and improvements in the transport network, particularly the development of the railways. This simple feature is a relatively intact example of its type, and is an interesting feature in the rural landscape to the north\north-west of Castlefinn.