Long Gilbert Quarry

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

Two contiguous lime kilns in the middle of a chalk quarry along the south side of the Portrush-Bushmills road, just beyond the E end of the White Rocks. Both are cut into the slope such that only their front (N) face and parts of their sides are visible. A clear wall break down the middle of the frontage indicates two phases of construction, with the W kiln being the earlier.
Although erected at different times, both kilns are of identical rubble basalt construction with tapered sides and fronts. They face N towards the road, with a single draw hole (‘eye’) at the base of each, from which the burnt chalk (a form of limestone) was extracted. Each eye has a flat stone lintel above and metal grate below and is set within a two-step round-headed recess with roughly-dressed voussoirs. A short length of chain hangs from above the W kiln’s draw hole, probably from which a sluice gate controlling the eye’s air intake was regulated.
The tops of the kilns where the open cylindrical pots were filled with alternate layers of limestone and coal are accessed from a ramp at W and also across a bridge at SW. Both pots have been now been deliberately infilled on public safety grounds. The quarried rock was apparently brought up from the working face of the quarry on bogies running on a tramway laid up the ramp. The bogies were hauled by a cable from a winch at the top of the ramp. The tram lines are long lifted, but vestiges of the winch survive in the form of a cast-iron bracket and low brick plinth just S of the pots.
In later years, the burnt lime was conveyed from the draw holes into a crusher and then into a two-stage concrete block hopper immediately N of the W kiln. The only surviving vestige of this conveyor is a small shaft at its top end, beside the top of the hopper. The burnt lime was discharged out through two orifices into the lorries backed underneath the hopper.
Just NW of the hopper is a single-span bridge carrying an access track off the main road to the top of the ramp at the SW end of the kilns. It comprises three metal beams with timber planking over and mass concrete sides.

Setting
There are deep quarries E and W of the kilns, both with high chalk scarps topped with basalt along their S sides. The main road runs along a scarp delineating the N faces of the two sections of quarry, with the sea cliffs along the other side. At one point just E of the kilns, the sea has cut a passage underneath the road and can be clearly seen at the W end of the E quarry. There is a sloping track off the main road into the W quarry.

Historical information

Limestone quarrying and burning were started here by John Hamill in the late 1800s and continued by his son Samuel J. Hamill until the 1950s. The burnt lime was apparently used as agricultural fertilizer by local farmers.
The quarry, both kilns, and mineral tramway up from the W quarry to the pots, are shown on the 1904, 1921, and 1950 OS maps. Although the bridge first appears on the 1921 map, the present bridge is undoubtedly a mid-1900s rebuild, and the hopper was probably added around the same time.
The Hamills were involved in a legal dispute with the Macnaghten Estate in 1928 regarding the purchase of the quarry through the Land Commission. In the event, it was deemed by the courts to be a mineral asset, the exploitation rights to which were ultimately the property of the landowner rather than any tenant.
After lime burning ceased in the ‘50s, the site continued to be used until the late 1960s as a depot for lime imported from nearby Ballintoy. By the time of the 1967 OS map, the tramway had been lifted and the kilns are no longer captioned.
A local story relates that the quarry was named after a local man called Gilbert who was noted for his height and who worked for the estate owner. He fell to his death over the quarry limestone cliffs whilst chasing a fox in the dark.

References – Primary Sources:
1. OS/10/1/2/15/1. First edition OS 25-inch map, Co Antrim sheet 2-15 (1904).
2. OS/10/1/2/15/2. Second edition OS 25-inch map, Co Antrim sheet 2-15 (1921).
3. PRONI D2587/6/2. Legal correspondence regarding land purchase, 1923-28.
4. OS/10/1/2/15/3. Third edition OS 25-inch map, Co Antrim sheet 2-15 (1950).
5. OS/11/6/11/1. First edition OS 25-inch map, IG sheet 6-11 (1967).

References – Secondary Sources:
1. Information from previous lessee (2013).

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

A. Style
B. Proportion
C. Ornamentation
J. Setting

Criteria for listing: historic interest

X. Local Interest
R. Age
S. Authenticity
T. Historic Importance

Evaluation

A pair of large late 19th century lime kilns in middle of an extensive chalk quarry with hopper and bridge adjacent. Both of these well preserved kilns are of standard configuration, i.e. With loading hole at the top of the pot, and draw hole at the base of their frontage. The loading ramp also survives. The kilns are set in an impressively deep quarry separated from the sea cliffs only by a narrow isthmus carrying the main road.
They are also of historical interest as a reminder of a once-essential local rural industry – the production of agricultural fertilizer – which here survived until the mid-1900s.

General comments

Listing Criteria R - Age; S - Authenticity and T - Historic Importance also apply.