Visited and surveyed by UAV for photogrammetry by Louise Barker and Julian Whitewright of the Royal Commission, 3rd April 2025.

A Sketchfab 3D model of the lime kiln resulting from the photogrammetric survey is available to view here https://skfb.ly/pvL9X

A partially surviving and much altered square lime kiln, sited on the western slope overlooking North Haven. The structure is much degraded on its seaward front face and has been converted to a shelter and is also used as a store. This is one of two lime kilns surviving on the Island. The other (NPRN 411577), 100 metres to the southwest also overlooks North Haven. This kiln is thought to be the older of the two (Howells 1968: 63 and Davies 1997: 45). 

Unlike the other island lime kiln, this kiln does not appear on the 1st edition 25-inch Ordnance Survey map published in 1875 which suggests it was already out of use by that date. Neither of the island kilns are depicted on the 1842 Tithe Map and Apportionment for the Island. 

The kiln is constructed from local island rubble stone and was bound with lime. It is constructed into the coastal slope, the area around it now intensely burrowed. A section of retaining wall runs north from the kiln, suggesting there might have been a platform on the north side of the kiln. The present day track which runs northwards in front of the kiln before turning sharply to the southwest past the top of the kiln, follows the line of the trackway depicted on the historic Ordnance Survey mapping and would have been used to deliver the limestone and coal, landed at North Haven beach. Steps now lead down from the front of the kiln to the present day track which suggests the track has been recut and lowered in recent times.

The structure is near square in shape, its front east wall measuring 5 metres across. The north wall is largely obscured by slippage of the coast slope, and a larger section of the south wall remains visible. Much of the front face of the kiln has been removed, but enough detail survives to indicate that this face housed the single kiln eye of the structure.  Here a section of facing stones turn inwards and defines part of the northern side of the kiln eye chamber.  The remaining stonework is the stabilised core material of the kiln with the kiln crucible clearly visible. Much of the facing stones of the crucible have been removed but the surviving profile suggesting an upper diameter of around 3 metres which narrows towards its base.

The top of the kiln is much altered with a new roof for the shelter added in recent years.

Contextual Information

Lime was important on the island both to be used as mortar for the buildings and to spread on the land as a fertilizer, the volcanic rocks of the Island not giving rise to a naturally fertile soil. Limestone and culm/coal would have been imported from the mainland, landed on the beach at North Haven and then moved to the kilns where it would be heated. The intense heat changed the rock, making in brittle and easy to crush to a fine powder ready for use.

The date of this kiln is unknown, but it clearly predates the other island kiln know to have been in use in 1875 and possibly used to supply the lime mortar needed for the construction of the farm house and associated buildings (NPRN 401141) built between 1842 and 1875. This kiln is likely to have been associated with the earlier farm (NPRN 423442) situated to the north of the later farm house and thus an 18th century date is highly likely.

Louise Barker, RCAHMW, 13 May 2025.

Sources:

Davies, P. 1997. Pembrokeshire Limekilns. (St Davids: Merrivale).

History of Skomer Island -The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, NJR 07/10/2010

Howells, R. 1968 The Sounds Between. (J D Lewis: Gomerian Press, Llandysul)

Ordnance Survey 1st Edition 25-inch map, 1875. Pembrokeshire XXXI/7

Tithe Map and Apportionment (National Library Wales) 1842 Plan of the parish of Saint Martin in the County of Pembroke https://places.library.wales/