In the civil survey 1654/56, Smith in his history of Cork, 1750 wrote - "There is no part of Ireland where so much lime is burned as in the south side of the Barony of Muskerry." From the head of the vale of Castlemore to below Kilcrea, on all the adjacent hills there are a great number of lime kilns. Several of the cottages in this tract pay their rents by lime-burning and will after, sell rock lime, ten or fifteen miles from the kiln at shilling a barrel'. From this, we can see that the use of lime was widespread in the area. The following gives us some idea of what the application of lime curtailed.
There were four different operations - quarrying, burning, slaking and spreading.
Before pneumatic drills came into operation, holes had to be drilled by hand in the quarry to enable the rock to be blasted. Long iron bars, about 16 feet long and 1 1/2 inches in diameter, with a fan-tailed point, made and tempered by a blacksmith, were used. Drilling was a one-man operation lifting and dropping the bar into the hole, the bar's own weight giving the necessary impetus as a two-man operation would increase the cost of production. The bars were called "jumpers". To drill two four feet deep holes in a day was considered good work for one man. The hole was kept filled with water to bring out the dust. Then the rock was blasted or levered apart with crowbars and broken with sledge-hammers. The rocks were then drawn to the kiln by horse and "butt".
The lime-kiln was a square stone building with an open top approached by a ramp to enable the loads to be dropped in. The inside of the kiln was egg-shaped and it operated by gravity almost like the modern solid-fuel cooker. One wall had an arched opening at the bottom to allow the lime-burner take out the lime. Above the opening was the floor of the kiln made of spaced iron bars. Some were movable to riddle the kiln to allow the burnt lime to drop down. When starting operations, firing materials such as straw, furze and wood were placed on the bars. On top of this was put a layer of coal-like material called "culm". This was cheaper than coal and would burn out completely. Most culm was imported but some was mined in Ireland. On top of the culm was put a layer of lime-stones, then alternate layers of culm and stones until the kiln was full. The kilns were 16 to 20 feet high and about the same width and lined with fire-brick. When full the whole thing was set alight and burned continuously. As each layer burned, the bars were riddled to allow the burnt lime drop down and further layers added to the top. The burnt lime was then drawn to the fields. Lime was sold by the "Barrel", a measure which weighed 2 1/2 hundred weight. One butt-load was 8 barrels, enough for one acre.
When the lime was brought to the field, it was put out in heaps called "falls". These were spaced out about 4 or 5 paces apart containing 5 or 6 shovels of hot burnt stones. If the farmer was lucky enough to get a wet night, the rain caused the stones to disintegrate into powder. If no rain came, water had to be brought in barrels and thrown on all the "falls" around the field. Then the powdered lime was spread around the field with shovels, then mixed with the soil by harrowing. Before the building of lime kilns, some farmers did their own burning, buying the broken stone from the quarry. A lot of farmers had crude kilns made by banks forming an enclosure into which the lime would be tipped and burn't using furze and heather. Some remains of these kilns can still be seen. After World War II ground lime-stone flour became available. This did away with burnt lime on the land. Burnt lime was also used widely by mixing with fine sand to make mortar.