Lime Kiln, Bighouse, Co.Antrim

A single-pot rubble masonry lime kiln of later 19th or earlier 20th C date. This kiln is located on the NW side of a single-lane road leading to Murlough Bay. It is cut into the slope with its frontage facing SE. The kiln is of square plan and built of random rubble basalt with an admixture of limestone rubble on its frontage. Its draw hole is at the base of its facade and comprises a keystoned segmental arch which gives into a splayed reveal containing three arches of diminishing size, the smallest of which is over the actual hole. All the arches have roughly dressed basalt voussoirs. The hole is now partially buried under an accumulation of sediment. On either side of the front arch is a small rectangular damper hole which controlled the rate of burning in the pot. A narrow string course runs across the face of the facade just above the crown of the outer arch and above which is a semicircular blind arch. The latter may have been be for decorative purposes rather than a relieving arch as the drawhole ope beneath it is arched rather than flat headed. The top of the kiln is flat and has a single circular stone-lined pot to centre. The stonework around the pot is consolidated in places with cement. The pot tapers in slightly towards its bottom end but the draw hole is not visible due to sedimentation. Setting: The kiln is situated on exposed treeless moorland high above Murlough Bay. Approximately 40m to its NE is a limestone outcrop with a small quarry working whence the stone was drawn. The slope directly behind the kiln has been built up level to facilitate the filling of the pot. The single-lane road in front of it would have been used to take the lime to its points of use.