Lime Kiln, Gartford Lane, Carnlough, Ballymena, Co Antrim

The lime kiln is an example of a once-common structure, though typically now derelict or incomplete. It is a basalt and limestone rubble structure with battered faces to the front and sides, built on a square plan into the side of a hill. The front face includes a draw hole with a lintel head, still open, set within three orders of segmental arches, each recessed within the other; the voussoirs are mainly of limestone with some basalt. A later gabled addition to the front face is indicated by traces of cement render over the outermost arch. The circular charging hole on top has some of the lining stonework missing, is now filled in, and has vegetation growing in it. The kiln is believed to date to between 1820 and 1839 and appears on an Ordnance Survey map of 1832. It was built for the small-scale burning of white limestone, reducing it to a rough powder for various uses. The structure stands in a rural area on an elevated position in a field overlooking Carnlough Bay. It is currently used as a rural industry and is noted as derelict and of industrial archaeological interest.