File:Ruined lime-kiln - geograph.org.uk - 1410024.jpg

English: Ruined lime-kiln. At this point, a rectangular pit is set into the foot of a NNE-facing slope. The pit is 10 metres wide, and extends back for about 4 metres into the slope; it is therefore enclosed on three of its sides, but is open along its northern side.

A later photo, taken when the bracken had died back, shows the overall structure much more clearly: 1768579.

Standing in the gap on the northern side are two structures made of red sandstone. The eastern structure of the pair is shown in this photo. It is oval, and measures, at its widest, 2 metres across.

When this photo was taken, I'd just been examining another pit, located only 40 metres to the south, which now contains a pool: 1410027. That led me to explore the surrounding area, and to discover these ruins among the bracken.

Since their online archaeology database had no record of any structures here, I reported the details of this find to WoSAS, mentioning my suspicion that this structure was a ruined lime-kiln, and that the site of the pool mentioned above was once a limestone quarry.

The helpful contact at WoSAS was able to confirm these identifications, noting that a first-edition OS map attests to the former presence of a lime-kiln and quarry here, and that these were already derelict by the mid-nineteenth century, when the map was made. Later investigations revealed that, about 14 years before my own visit, the area had already been noted for its cornstone workings by the respected naturalist John Mitchell (his article is therefore cited in the end-note, below).

For the western structure of the pair, see 1410026.

For further indications of former quarrying activity in this area, see 1410028 and 1402832.

Another former lime-kiln site had been identified on this moor: 1232836.