What makes it worth a second look is how much of its original fabric survives. The arched recess on the south-east face, where the burned lime would once have been raked out, remains intact at around 1.5 metres high and nearly two metres wide, complete with a lower inner arch and a tall lintelled opening in the back wall. Part of the earthen core has since collapsed into that recess, and the circular stone-lined funnel at the top is partially infilled, but the essential shape of the structure is still readable.

Lime kilns were once common features of the Irish agricultural landscape, used to burn limestone at high temperatures and produce quicklime, which farmers spread on acidic soils to improve fertility or used as a binding agent in mortar. This example was built parallel to the laneway, with a ramp approaching from the north-west side, along which limestone and fuel, usually coal or turf, would have been loaded into the funnel from above. The front recess provided access to draw out the finished lime once burning was complete. The earthen core, still partially retained within the front wall, was a structural feature common to this type of kiln, insulating the burn chamber and helping to hold the whole thing together. Though no construction date is recorded, kilns of this form were widespread across rural Ireland from the eighteenth century onwards, tied closely to improving landlord schemes and the intensification of tillage farming.