Lime kilns near and far

When you are new to the UCSC campus, finding a lime kiln in the forest is a rite of passage, a mysterious surprise. What the hell? Is that a castle? 

There is a sub-set of Santa Cruz local historians who love lime kilns. Those historians wrote a book about ten years ago, Lime Kiln Legacies. They really got into it. Here's the table of contents.

1. Introduction—Frank A. Perry, Robert W. Piwarzyk, Michael D. Luther, Alverda Orlando, Allan Molho, and Sierra L. PerrySidebar: Uses of Lime 

2. Lime and Geology—Frank A. PerryThe origin and distribution of the rock used to make lime and the history of the terms limestone, marble, and limerock.  Sidebar: The Pacific Limestone Products Company

3. In Search of Spanish Lime Kilns—Frank A. PerryThe use of lime at Mission Santa Cruz and the Villa de Branciforte and the possible locations of kilns used by the Spanish. 

4. Tales Told by Kilns—Frank A. Perry and Robert W. PiwarzykAn analysis of kiln designs with descriptions of the various types of walls, doorways, linings, buttresses, etc. 

5. Steps in Making Lime—Frank A. Perry and Robert W. PiwarzykA step by step account of how lime was made, from quarrying rock to loading lime in barrels.Sidebar: Forests Fuel an IndustrySidebar: Making Mortar and Plaster 

6. Lime Companies—Frank A. Perry and Robert W. Piwarzyk, with a history of the Santa Cruz Lime Company by Alverda OrlandoA short history of each of the 25 lime companies, including the years of operation, location, facilities, and biographical sketches of the owners.Sidebar: A Day at the KilnsSidebar: Lime, Cement, and ConcreteSidebar: Lime Production by the Holmes Lime Company, 1908 

7. People and Lime—Frank A. Perry and Sierra L. PerryA discussion of lime worker duties, wages, unions, housing, accidents, and ethnicity.Sidebar: Whitewash 

8. Getting the Lime to Market—Frank A. Perry, Robert W. Piwarzyk, and Allan MolhoThe history of the wagon roads, landings, ships, and railroads used to haul the lime to market.Sidebar: Trial Trip of the Santa Cruz 

9. A Year in the Life of the Lime Industry—Michael D. Luther and Frank A. PerryExcerpts from the Santa Cruz Surf newspaper for the year 1887 detailing lime industry activities and shipping. 

10. Walking Tour of a Lime Manufacturing SiteWalking tour and map of the historic kilns and buildings on the University of California, Santa Cruz, campus. 

11. Lime and Place Names—Frank A. Perry and Robert W. PiwarzykThe origin of over fifty Santa Cruz County place names with links to lime industry people, products, events, and activities.

When that book came out I bought it, but I don't remember reading it. Sure, the lime industry is crucial and deserving of study, but it wasn't as interesting to me as other topics, like Bohemians, Chinese Restaurants or Bowling Alleys. 

Most people see their first lime kiln at the entrance to the UCSC campus, which is now designated as the Historic Lime Works District. Lime kilns are a big deal, and their value has preserved the history of the campus site which is unique among all the universities of the world. 

I found this video of an archeologist talking about research into this industry, and what life was like for the men who worked the kilns. In a word: hard. 

Many of the men who worked at the lime stone works in Santa Cruz were Irish immigrants. Perhaps they brought their skill at burning lime from Ireland? 


The neighborhood I live in now is peaceful, where sheep and cows graze, and tourists travel from far away to enjoy Marble Hill beach. But a hundred and forty years ago, just like in Santa Cruz, it was a noisy, smoky, lime works district. 

Here's a map of my neighborhood from the 1830s. See the many areas labeled "L. S. Quarry?" 

Just like in Santa Cruz, a limestone quarry means there will be kilns nearby. So far, I've found four of them.

The first three are modest and roughly built.

The fourth one I found while walking through a little wood, and it surprised me just like finding my first kiln in a redwood forest long ago.

This one is tall and well built, with a dressed stone arch. 

Enjoy my skilled camera work: 

This kiln is in a forest because just like in Santa Cruz, after the lime works closed, a forest grew in its place. 

Not surprisingly, now that I know how Irish lime kilns are, I'm so much more interested in them, and wish I had my library with me so I could read Lime Kiln Legacies. 

Ancient Neighbors

The Irish government relaxed travel restrictions this week. We can now travel 5km for exercise and shopping. We won't be able to travel more than 20 km until mid-July. If all goes well. 

Because of the increased travel limit this week, for the first time in months I could drive to the dune outside of Dunfanaghy and walk to one of my favorite hilltops. It's near the medieval souterrain I wrote about previously. I love those mountains, the seven sisters. Muckish on the left, and Errigal on the far right, and I think the three in the middle Ardloughnabrackbaddy, Aghla More and Aghla Beg, but I'm not sure.

They always lift my heart. I've missed seeing them. 

The next day I walked to that red dot on the map below, labeled "Fort." I have been trying to find it since we moved to Dunfanaghy, and I finally found a route. 

A ring fort isn't a fort in a military sense. "Farmstead" is probably a more accurate word, built by people to protect their livestock from raids and wolves. Irish people lived in them for thousands of years, up to the middle ages.

When a ring fort is built of stone, like they are in Donegal, archeologists use the term "cashel." The painting below shows a cashel similar to Ballymore ring fort.

See more of Philip Armstrong's history paintings at his website. 

Cashels are contemporary with their much more numerous raths and date from mostly the Irish Early Christian period (c500-1000AD), the main difference being that they were mostly confined to rockier areas and were therefore stone built. 

The buildings inside were also more than likely stone built with thatched roofs. Philip Armstrong.

The archeology survey describes the ring fort like this:

Townland: BALLYMORE LOWER
Description: Internal diam. c. 45m NNW-SSE, c. 23m ENE-WSW. An oval area enclosed by a collapsed stone wall up to 1m in height and originally 1.95m wide. Externally to the E and Ware sharp drops. Internally on the W side is a 4m square structure of collapsed stone walls now 3m wide. There is a gap in this collapse at the SE corner. Just N of this structure a slab 1.7m long projects out of the ground. The site is located on a NE-SW hill overlooking the Back Strand, in rough pasture and in a commanding position.

I know these tiny videos are ridiculous, but maybe you can sense the "commanding position." 

Even if the videos were larger it is impossible to capture the subtle contours of a ring fort in a 2D image.

This is the center of the ring fort, looking east. You can see the slope of the northern and southern walls. I could not discern the "rectangular structure" mentioned in the archaeology report, nor the long slab.

Here is what our house looks like from inside ring fort.

The fourth edge, to the south, is a steep ravine. The ravine is odd, in that there is no stream at the bottom or obvious reason for how geologic forces formed it perpendicular to the ridge. I wonder if it is what remains of a man-made moat. 

You can sort of see the southern ravine to the right of the ring fort in this photo I took from the ridge behind our house. 

I spend a lot of time looking over this valley. "In these difficult times" it is comforting to see houses of neighbors, ancient and modern. I imagine my neighbors enjoying these same sunsets, the same corncrakes, the same joy at simply climbing a hill and seeing a mountain against the sky.