Description

The monument comprises a small circular lime-kiln and associated quarry pits.

The lime-kiln, of late-19th/early 20th century date, is circular on plan, and still stands to its full original height of 1.5m. It measures approximately 4m across internally, and is of drystone build. It has been of the draw-kiln type, with a lintelled draw-hole facing towards the nearby loch, which would have provided water for slaking lime for agricultural use.

The fuel would presumably have been peat, and the lime source is the underlying bedrock, one of the few patches of limestone outcrop in the West Mainland. Clear traces of quarrying survive adjacent to the kiln. Such kilns were formerly widespread in Shetland, wherever lime occured or could be readily transported, but few now survive. They provided both agricultural and building lime.

The area to be scheduled includes both the kiln and the nearby area of quarry pits, to provide a range of evidence covering the whole process of lime-making. It is a rectangle 30m N-S by 60m E-W, cut off slightly at the SW corner by the loch. The area is marked in red on the accompanying map extract.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as a fine example of a small-scale agricultural/domestic lime-kiln, illustrating the essentially self-sufficient way in which new technologies were often brought to bear on rural life, especially in relating poor (in agricultural terms) parts of the country.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation

Source: Historic Environment Scotland