Disused Lime Kilns, Clarehill Road, Moira, Craigavon, Co Armagh

Disused Lime Kilns

A complex of four defunct lime kilns with associated store and office buildings stands on the south side of Clarehill Road, approximately 250 metres south-east of the former Clarehill Quarries which they once served.

The four kilns are constructed entirely of limestone, aligned north-east to south-west, and set into a high embankment with their principal elevation facing south-east. The exposed faces are battered. The south-east elevation displays finely dressed limestone blocks laid to regular courses with decorative limestone snecking, topped by a projecting coping course. Both end elevations are of squared random rubble construction without snecking. The north-west side of the embankment has been completely excavated, severing access to the tops of the pots, and a metal fence now runs along this side.

Draw holes are positioned at regular intervals along the base of the south-east façade. Each has a semicircular arched opening with dressed voussoirs, with inwardly curved abutments and soffits of squared random rubble. The openings taper back internally to two shallow segmental brick arches, below which is a square-headed brick opening into the firing chamber base. The third draw hole from the south-west end has been cleaned out, revealing a circular brick-lined chamber bottom. Between and above the first and second draw holes from the south-west end is a metal bracket of unknown function. The south-west two pots remain open with brick linings that taper inward towards the bottom. The two pots at the north-east are buried under vegetation.

At the north-east end of the kiln block stands a later three-storey, two-bay store building with its principal façade facing south-east. The wall break clearly shows this to be a subsequent addition. It has a replacement pitched corrugated-metal roof over original common rafters and purlins. The walls are of coursed greywacke and shale with a projecting brick eaves course. Each bay on the ground floor has a brick-headed doorway; the south-west bay retains its original tongue-and-groove sheeted door. The south-west bay's ground floor is unlit; the north-east bay ground floor has two small square-headed window openings with brick heads and jambs. The first and second floors are lit by three segmental-headed brick-lined openings, originally containing timber shutters. The rear elevation's north-east bay has a door and window at first floor level (the door opening to ground level), but is otherwise blank. None of the window openings has a cill.

Abutting the north-east gable of the store is a small single-storey, single-bay office block of L-plan. It has random rubble wall construction with brick quoins and a brick header course at eaves, plus a brick chimney. The rear wall is partly constructed in modern concrete blockwork. The front north-east façade has a small square-headed door opening with sheeted timber door and a square-headed window with brick surrounds blocked with corrugated perspex. The roof is hipped natural slate to the front and corrugated metal to the rear.

The kilns were formerly served by two quarries approximately 250 metres north-west, now partly infilled and redeveloped as a small industrial estate.