What makes it worth pausing over is the quality of its construction: ashlar limestone walls, meaning dressed and precisely cut stone laid in regular courses, encase an earthen core, giving the structure a solidity that belies its essentially industrial purpose. The front elevation facing south features an arched recess, a characteristic opening through which fuel and limestone were loaded and the burnt lime later raked out.

Lime kilns were once a common feature of the Irish countryside, built wherever farmers or landowners needed quicklime for agricultural improvement or for mortar in building work. The process involved burning limestone at high temperatures, and kilns were typically sited close to a quarry, as this one is, to reduce the labour of hauling heavy stone. This particular example dates from the early twentieth century, making it relatively late in the tradition, by which point industrially produced lime was already beginning to displace the smaller local operations. The use of ashlar rather than rough rubble suggests a degree of care and investment that was not universal among kilns of this type.