Old quay for lime works at

The Department's description

Exterior description and setting

A small quay built of large squared limestone blocks laid in courses, with battered faces, now in derelict condition, with some stonework missing and the top overgrown with grass and vegetation. Adjacent is a later bulwark constructed of bags of cement stacked on top of each other with the woven pattern of the original Hessian bags imprinted on the surface after the bags had rotted away: an unusual constructional method presumably dating from the early 20th century.

Setting: the quay is situated on the shore of Larne Lough within the site of a cement works,, with a railway line immediately to its rear. There is a range of contemporary lime kilns in derelict condition slightly further inland and visible from it.

Historical information

Appears on OS map of 1832. Probably dates from 1804 when Mr Farrell, the proprietor of the Magheramorne estate, who was responsible for the development of the lime works, built kilns and wharfs here.

References - Primary

1. OS Map 1832, Co Antrim 41.
2. Ordnance Survey Memoirs of Ireland, Vol 26: Parishes of Co Antrim X (Belfast, 1994), p 18.

Secondary Sources

1. IHR 7012:2.

Criteria for listing: architectural interest

Not listed

Criteria for listing: historic interest

Not listed

Evaluation

This is a structure of modest dimensions and in derelict condition whose function has been overtaken by later developments at the site, but worth recording as a relic of the late Georgian origins of the commercial operations of what had been the largest lime works in the British Isles at that time.