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Kelhead Lime Works
Lime Kiln (18th Century) - (20th Century), Lime Works (18th Century) - (20th Century), Limestone Quarry(S) (18th Century) - (20th Century)
Site Name Kelhead Lime Works
Classification Lime Kiln (18th Century) - (20th Century), Lime Works (18th Century) - (20th Century), Limestone Quarry(S) (18th Century) - (20th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Kelhead Quarry; Killhead; Winterseugh
Canmore ID 66591
Site Number NY16NW 44
NGR NY 1459 6922
NGR Description Centred NY 145 694
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/66591
- Council Dumfries And Galloway
- Parish Cummertrees
- Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
- Former District Annandale And Eskdale
- Former County Dumfries-shire
NY16NW 44 centred 145 694
This working in a Lower Carboniferous limestone is now abandoned and completely waterlogged. The main worked seam has a thickness of 25 ft. and dips gently E at a low angle under a moderate overburden. Only the top of the seam is now visible above water. When in operation the section was: (at top) bands of reddish nodular limestone, 4ft.; reddish shale, 12ft.; massive limestone, 25 ft. The quality of the limestone was said to be excellent.
Re-opening the quarry would be a difficult and expensive operation because of the great amount of water in it. The outcrop of the limestone should continue just west of Kelhead farm and then strike NE towards Winterseugh. A nodular limestone, believed to be the top seam of Kelhead, crops out in the brook 250 yds. WNW of Winterseugh.
T Robertson, JB Simpson and JGC Anderson 1949.
Field Visit (29 November 1994)
NY16NW 44 centred 145 693
The Statistical Account refers to the 'excellent lime-stone quarry near Killhead'. Limestone was quarried here for at least 100 years, and the extent of the quarrying is depicted on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Dumfriesshire, 1861, sheet lxii), together with its bank of kilns; the base of the southernmost kiln and its draw arch still survive. Drainage was obviously a problem, and several large ponds are shown.
By 1900, when the 2nd edition of the map was published, quarrying operations had extended to the S, and the kilns remained in use. A wagon way connected the quarry to the Glasgow and South Western Railway, and stretches of this can be traced in woodland on the E boundary of the grounds of Kinmount House (NY16NW 19.00).
The quarry is now abandoned and waterfilled, but the spoil dumps and faces of the earlier workings can still be seen, along with later concrete machinery stances where the limestone was processed; the latter are not indicated on any edition of the map
Visited by RCAHMS (ARW, SPH), 29 November 1994.
OSA 1791-9.
Kelhead. Listed as quarries and kilns.
RCAHMS 1997.
