Long Gilbert Quarry, Dunluce Road, Portrush, Co Antrim, BT56

Long Gilbert Quarry

Two contiguous lime kilns of late 19th century date, set in the middle of an extensive chalk quarry on the south side of the Portrush-Bushmills road, just beyond the east end of the White Rocks.

Both kilns are cut into the slope such that only their front (north) face and parts of their sides remain visible. A clear wall break down the middle of the frontage indicates two phases of construction, with the western kiln being the earlier. Although erected at different times, both kilns are of identical rubble basalt construction with tapered sides and fronts. They face north towards the road, with a single draw hole (or 'eye') at the base of each, from which burnt chalk (a form of limestone) was extracted. Each eye has a flat stone lintel above and metal grate below, and is set within a two-step round-headed recess with roughly-dressed voussoirs. A short length of chain hangs from above the western kiln's draw hole, probably from which a sluice gate controlling the eye's air intake was regulated.

The tops of the kilns, where the open cylindrical pots were filled with alternate layers of limestone and coal, are accessed from a ramp at the west and also across a bridge at the southwest. Both pots have been deliberately infilled for public safety reasons. The quarried rock was apparently brought up from the working face on bogies running on a tramway laid up the ramp. The bogies were hauled by cable from a winch at the top of the ramp. The tram lines have been lifted, but vestiges of the winch survive in the form of a cast-iron bracket and low brick plinth just south of the pots.

In later years, burnt lime was conveyed from the draw holes into a crusher and then into a two-stage concrete block hopper immediately north of the western kiln. The only surviving vestige of this conveyor is a small shaft at its top end, beside the top of the hopper. Burnt lime was discharged through two orifices into lorries backed underneath. Just northwest of the hopper is a single-span bridge carrying an access track from the main road to the top of the ramp at the southwest end of the kilns. It comprises three metal beams with timber planking over and mass concrete sides.

The quarry is set within deep sections both east and west of the kilns, with high chalk scarps topped with basalt along their south sides. The main road runs along a scarp delineating the north faces of the two sections of quarry, with the sea cliffs along the other side. At one point just east of the kilns, the sea has cut a passage underneath the road. A sloping track leads off the main road into the western quarry.

Limestone quarrying and burning were started here by John Hamill in the late 1800s and continued by his son Samuel J. Hamill until the 1950s. The burnt lime was used as agricultural fertilizer by local farmers. The quarry, both kilns, and mineral tramway up from the western quarry to the pots are shown on the 1904, 1921, and 1950 Ordnance Survey maps. Although the bridge first appears on the 1921 map, the present bridge is undoubtedly a mid-20th century rebuild, and the hopper was probably added around the same time. The Hamills were involved in a legal dispute with the Macnaghten Estate in 1928 regarding the purchase of the quarry through the Land Commission. The courts deemed it to be a mineral asset, and exploitation rights ultimately belonged to the landowner rather than any tenant. After lime burning ceased in the 1950s, the site continued to be used until the late 1960s as a depot for lime imported from nearby Ballintoy. By the time of the 1967 Ordnance Survey map, the tramway had been lifted and the kilns were no longer captioned.

Local tradition relates that the quarry was named after a local man called Gilbert, noted for his height, who worked for the estate owner. He fell to his death over the quarry limestone cliffs whilst chasing a fox in the dark.