Lime kilns at

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A large north-facing stone structure built as a range of lime kilns in two or more phases. It comprises a long block constructed, at the west end, of regularly coursed squared limestone rubble containing two segmental arched kiln openings in the front face, followed by a large blocked-up segmental arched opening, which extends to a run of three semi-circular arched kiln openings set in a battered wall of snecked greystone rubble; the range of three kilns have rusticated stone voussoirs to the front openings and contain smaller recessed segmental arches in brick. Projecting forward at the north-east corner is a large return block with battered faces constructed in snecked basalt to courses with rusticated sandstone quoins; only one original semi-circular arched kiln opening, now blocked up, still visible in the front face due to a later flat roofed concrete extension being built on to it. Top surface of kilns grassed over and overgrown with vegetation; part of front face covered with a creeper.

Setting: the kilns stand near the shore of Larne Lough within the site of a cement works, with later industrial buildings nearby to the north and a disused quarry to the east.

Historical information

Main block of kilns appears on OS map of 1832; block projecting to north-east appears on 1857 map. Date of erection uncertain but the main block may be the kilns which were erected here in 1804 by Mr Farrell, proprietor of the Magheramorne estate, who was responsible for the development of the lime works; while the block to its north-east corner may be the new kilns added by John Irving who purchased the property in 1824. Previous to the building of kilns by Farrell, lime had been burnt here since 1794. The Ordnance Survey Memoirs recorded “2 ranges of kilns, one consisting of 4 and the other of 2 kilns. They are each 30 feet deep and 9 feet in diameter from the top until near the bottom, where they become conical. They are built of stone and are lined with brick.” Described in 1837 as being “the largest lime works in the United Kingdom”. Recorded in 1840 as comprising “10 lime-kilns (3 of which are just being completed, April 1840) forming a range of 318 feet long, parallel to the quays from which they are 70 feet distant. By the early 20th century the lime works became The British Portland Cement Works.

References - Primary

1. OS Map 1832, Co Antrim 41.
2. OS Map 1857, Co Antrim 41.
3. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol 26: Parishes of Co Antrim X, (Belfast, 1994), pp 7, 14, 15, 18.
4. S. Lewis, A Topographical Dictionary of Ireland (London, 1837), p 664.

Secondary Sources

1. IHR 7012:1.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is an example of a once-common type of industrial structure which is usually now in a derelict or incomplete condition, much altered in this case, and not of any intrinsic architectural interest, but worth recording as a relic of the late Georgian origins of the commercial operations of what was at one time the largest lime works in the British Isles.