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

Two contiguous lime kilns in the middle of a chalk quarry along the south side of the Portrush-Bushmills road, just beyond the E end of the White Rocks. Both are cut into the slope such that only their front (N) face and parts of their sides are visible. A clear wall break down the middle of the frontage indicates two phases of construction, with the W kiln being the earlier. Although erected at different times, both kilns are of identical rubble basalt construction with tapered sides and fronts. They face N towards the road, with a single draw hole (‘eye’) at the base of each, from which the 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 W 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 W and also across a bridge at SW. Both pots have been now been deliberately infilled on public safety grounds. The quarried rock was apparently brought up from the working face of the quarry on bogies running on a tramway laid up the ramp. The bogies were hauled by a cable from a winch at the top of the ramp. The tram lines are long lifted, but vestiges of the winch survive in the form of a cast-iron bracket and low brick plinth just S of the pots. In later years, the burnt lime was conveyed from the draw holes into a crusher and then into a two-stage concrete block hopper immediately N of the W kiln. The only surviving vestige of this conveyor is a small shaft at its top end, beside the top of the hopper. The burnt lime was discharged out through two orifices into the lorries backed underneath the hopper. Just NW of the hopper is a single-span bridge carrying an access track off the main road to the top of the ramp at the SW end of the kilns. It comprises three metal beams with timber planking over and mass concrete sides. Setting There are deep quarries E and W of the kilns, both with high chalk scarps topped with basalt along their S sides. The main road runs along a scarp delineating the N faces of the two sections of quarry, with the sea cliffs along the other side. At one point just E of the kilns, the sea has cut a passage underneath the road and can be clearly seen at the W end of the E quarry. There is a sloping track off the main road into the W quarry.