Lime kiln, Tollymore Park, Newcastle, Co Down

This is the remains of a lime kiln, probably built in the later 18th century, set within woodland in the north-eastern corner of Tollymore Park, Newcastle, County Down.

The kiln is built of rubble stonework and has been abandoned for a considerable time — possibly well before the land was given over to forestry in the 1930s. It is now largely overgrown and partially collapsed, the plant growth having apparently contributed to the structural deterioration. Despite this, the overall form of the kiln can still be made out. The loading ramp, used for bringing in limestone and fuel, survives to the west. To the east stands the battered hearth wall, which retains a shallow segmental arch head formed from rough stone voussoirs.

Lime kilns of this type do not generally appear on the Ordnance Survey maps of 1834 or 1859, and this one is no exception. However, what appears to be a "lime house" is marked on Bernard Scalé's map of Tollymore Park dated 1777, suggesting the structure may have been in existence by that date, even if a 19th-century construction cannot be ruled out entirely.

Tollymore Park has a long and well-documented history. In the late medieval period the land formed part of the lordship of the Magennis family of Upper Iveagh. In 1611, Brian MacHugh Magennis received a royal grant of seven and a half townlands in the area from King James I. The estate remained in Magennis male ownership until around 1685, when Bernard Magennis died without children and the property passed to his sister Ellen, who was married to William Hamilton. The estate subsequently descended to their son James, and then to his son, also James, who inherited in 1701. This second James was created Viscount Limerick in 1719 and Earl of Clanbrassil (of the second creation) in 1728. Popularly remembered by his earlier title of Lord Limerick, he began transforming Tollymore into a naturalistic landscape demesne around 1720, enclosing much of the land as a deer park, undertaking large-scale tree planting, and constructing a hunting lodge and the structure known as the Old Bridge. He also rebuilt the parish church at Bryansford, the small estate village to the north of the park, which takes its name from his ancestor Brian Magennis.

Around 1750, Lord Limerick began work on a larger house, thought to have been designed with input from the English architect Thomas Wright, a personal friend who visited Ireland in 1746–47 and stayed at Tollymore Park in September 1746. Writing in his Tour of Ireland of 1752, Dr Pococke noted that Lord Limerick had completed two rooms of his new "pretty lodge" by that date, and had also built a thatched open dining structure on the south side of the Shimna River. The Clanbrassil Barn was added just to the north of the house in 1757, and the Horn Bridge was built to the south at around the same time. Lord Limerick died in 1758 and was succeeded by his son, also named James, who extended the house and continued the tree-planting programme. During the 1780s, this second James added the Barbican gate at the eastern park entrance, the gothick gate at the Bryansford entrance, a hermitage, gothick follies, a steward's lodge on the Hilltown Road, and several bridges within the park, including Ivy Bridge, Parnell's Bridge, and Foley's Bridge — the last named after his wife, Grace Foley. These additions are also thought to reflect the influence of Thomas Wright. Bernard Scalé's 1777 map of the park captures something of its picturesque character at this period, showing a rolling landscape of planting, meadows, rivers, streams, and woodland walks. An advertisement in the Belfast News-Letter of 26 April 1785 offered lodgings in Bryansford village with a "most pleasing prospect" of the Earl of Clanbrassil's "much admired demesne", praising its wholesome air and the herbage on which goats fed, noting that the area was "much frequented by ladies and gentlemen for the recovery of lost health."

James, 2nd Viscount Limerick and 2nd Earl of Clanbrassil, died without issue in 1798, and the park passed to his sister Anne, wife of Robert Jocelyn, 1st Earl of Roden. Their son, Robert, 2nd Earl of Roden, inherited the estate in 1802 and built the Bryansford and Barbican gate lodges, the latter of which has since been demolished. He also erected an obelisk monument to the east of the house in memory of his second son James, who died prematurely in 1812. The 2nd Earl and his successor, Robert, 3rd Earl of Roden, continued to develop Bryansford village, making it what was described as "a pleasing place of residence for those persons that like a quiet retreat." A Roman Catholic church was built at the eastern edge of the village in 1820, school houses in 1823 and 1826, and labourers' dwellings and the large dower house known as The Nest were added around the same time. The 3rd Earl also constructed a water-powered saw mill within the demesne and added a further small lodge to the east in 1865. He enlarged Tollymore House itself by adding an extra storey to the wings and a tall French château-style roof to the original central block, a feature considered somewhat incongruous with the existing fabric.

Tollymore Park remained in the ownership of the Roden family until 1930, when the 8th Earl sold two thirds of the land to the Ministry of Agriculture for afforestation. The remaining third was acquired by the Ministry in 1940, and during the Second World War Tollymore House and part of the grounds were used by the Army. After the war the house fell into disrepair and was demolished by Lord Roden in 1952. In 1955 Tollymore became the first state forest in Northern Ireland to be designated a Forest Park and was opened to the public. It has since been developed for timber production, recreation, conservation, and education. Although the house itself is gone, most of the park's 18th- and early 19th-century gates, bridges, and lodges have survived.