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

Disused Lime Kilns, Clarehill Road, Moira

A complex of four stone-built lime kilns with associated store and offices, situated on the south side of Clarehill Road, approximately 250 metres south-east of the former Clarehill Quarries which they once served. The kilns are aligned north-east to south-west at the south-west end of the complex and are set into a high embankment with their principal elevation facing south-east.

The kilns are constructed entirely of limestone and are battered to their exposed faces. The south-east elevation displays finely dressed blocks laid to regular courses with decorative limestone snecking, and a projecting coping course runs along the top. Both end elevations are of squared random rubble construction without snecking. The north-west side of the embankment has been completely removed, severing access to the tops of the pots and requiring a metal fence along the top.

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

The north-east end of the kiln block is abutted by a three-storey, two-bay store, with its principal façade facing south-east. The wall break indicates this is a later addition. It has a replacement pitched corrugated-metal roof over the original common rafters and purlins. The walls are of quarried greywacke and shale brought to courses 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 ground floor of the north-east bay is lit by 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 which originally contained timber shutters. The rear elevation of the north-east bay has a door and window at first floor level (the former opening out to ground level) but is otherwise blank. None of the window openings has a cill.

A small single-storey, single-bay office block of L-plan abuts the north-east gable of the store. It has random rubble wall construction with brick quoins and a brick header course at eaves. A brick chimney is present. The rear wall is constructed in part of 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. It has a hipped natural slate roof to the front and corrugated metal to the rear.

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

The precise date of erection of these kilns is uncertain, but they are probably of early 19th-century date. Four kilns are depicted at this location on the 1834 Ordnance Survey six-inch map, with extensive quarries also shown to their north-west. The adjoining store and offices first appear on the 1858 Ordnance Survey map and are therefore of mid-19th-century date. The 1862 Griffith Valuation records James Hammond as the lessee of "four kilns, well built, [and] chalk quarry". The 1876 valuation entry notes that the chalk was hard to quarry as it was covered with a deep layer of earth. The 1904 entry notes that the kilns and quarry had not been worked for three years and that the buildings were vacant. There are no records of any subsequent activity.

Although the setting has been diminished by the partial removal of the embankment and the close proximity of recent housing, the kilns remain intact and form an impressive composition, now increasingly rare. Given their utilitarian function, the high standard of their stonework is particularly noteworthy. They are of local interest as an example of lime burning on an industrial scale and contribute to the heritage of the area.