Lime Kilns, 1049 Crumlin Road, Belfast, County Antrim

Lime Kilns, Crumlin Road, Belfast

This is a block of two derelict shaft-type lime kilns dating from the 1920s, located in an abandoned limestone quarry on the south-east slopes of Squire's Hill, just west of where the Crumlin and Hightown Roads meet. The kilns were used to produce quicklime by burning limestone with fuel, typically coal or coke. The limestone was quarried from higher ground above the kilns; the quarry is now infilled and capped, though steep earth and stone banks still surround the kilns, which are reached along a concrete road from the Crumlin Road.

The two kilns sit within a substantial brick base aligned north-east to south-west and held together with three metal tie rods secured to angle-irons at each corner. The base is constructed mostly of red brick set in cement-rich mortar, with some yellow brickwork on the draw hole façade facing south-east; this yellow brickwork may indicate a later repair or simply a different brick source used at the time of construction. The solid base would have retained the heat of the two kilns set within it.

Two draw holes on the south-east elevation are now heavily overgrown. Each has a shallow segmental-arched concrete head that slopes inward and downward to a square brick-lined room directly beneath each kiln. The ceilings of these spaces are cast concrete, with a square metal chute projecting down from the centre of each ceiling toward the draw hole, now in poor repair. The other three sides of the base are largely exposed and without openings; the north-east elevation is heavily overgrown. The top of the base is flat and capped with concrete.

A reinforced-concrete platform originally bridged the gap between the north-west side of the base and the ground beyond to facilitate access to and loading of the kilns. Large fragments of this platform remain on the ground, likely deliberately broken up after abandonment to prevent future access.

Two cylindrical stacks project from the top of the base, constructed of firebrick and externally clad with riveted metal sheeting. One brick is indented 'Thistle / 12', indicating these refractory bricks were made by J.G. Stein of Scotland. The top of each stack reduces to a narrower circular brick flue, though that of the south-west stack has largely collapsed. On the north-west face of each kiln is a large square hinged opening through which the shafts were loaded with limestone and fuel. Possible vestiges of a draught-control lever survive at the top of the north-east stack.

A short distance north-east of these kilns stands a bank of four later 19th-century kilns of traditional design, aligned east-west across the slope. Its continuous front wall of random rubble is now partly buried under soil and has collapsed along its western half. Only the left-hand draw hole remains visible, heavily overgrown, with a segmental-arched head sloping down to a large horizontal stone lintel over the actual extraction hole. Behind the façade, all four circular pots are still evident, though all have partly collapsed and are largely infilled. Notably, all pots are lined with random rubble rather than brick. A loading terrace runs level across the back of the pots, from which quarried limestone and fuel were layered into the pots for burning.