Cults Hill Limestone Quarry
Building(S) (19th Century), Clamp Kiln(S) (19th Century), Lime Kiln(S) (19th Century), Limestone Quarry(S) (19th Century), Machinery Plinth(S) (19th Century) - (20th Century), Miners Row(S) (19th Century)
Site Name Cults Hill Limestone Quarry
Classification Building(S) (19th Century), Clamp Kiln(S) (19th Century), Lime Kiln(S) (19th Century), Limestone Quarry(S) (19th Century), Machinery Plinth(S) (19th Century) - (20th Century), Miners Row(S) (19th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Bunzion Lime Works
Canmore ID 125079
Site Number NO30NW 113.05
NGR NO 3433 0858
NGR Description Centred NO 3433 0858
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/125079
- Council Fife
- Parish Cults
- Former Region Fife
- Former District North East Fife
- Former County Fife
Field Visit (November 1996 - May 1997)
NO30NW 113.05 Centred 3433 0858
The West works (formerly Bunzion Lime Works) are situated in the central section of the quarry immediately to the N of the public road. The works comprise a multiple kiln, a drying shed, machinery plinths, miners' rows, several buildings, and a mineral railway (see NO30NW 113.10), clamp-kilns, and several limestone mines.
The most impressive feature of the works is a large stone-built, concrete-faced limekiln. Three brick-built kiln bowls are set into kilns, visible from the top, and at least four draw-hole entrances, within which there are several draw-holes with connecting passages between them can be seen at the base. Placed on the front of the kiln there is a datestone of 1937. Another datestone can be seen on the other side of 1870. The datestones probably attest the two major rebuildings that were carried out on these kilns. In 1870 two, or possibly three, kilns were amalgamated into a single structure, the earlier situation being shown on the 1st edition of the OS 25-inch map (Fifeshire, 1895, sheet xiii.15). The 1937 date notes the renovation of the kilns, and it is at this time the cement rendering was applied to the front elevation and SW side.
At the NW end of the large kiln there is an area of small spoil heaps and rubble with, to the S, a large retaining wall which may be the last vestiges of the central of the three individual kilns of the pre-1914 period. The single smaller kiln to the NW beyond the end of the standard gauge railway, depicted on the 1895 edition of the OS 25-inch (Fifeshire, sheet xiii.15) has been completely demolished and the only evidence of its location may be a mound of earth and burnt lime.
Immediately E of the large concrete and stone-kiln there is what is known as the 'drying shed' (NO 3437 0861). A large corrugated-iron roofed brick and stone-built building, measuring externally 28m E-W by 10m transversely. The building is used today by a sawmill as a workshop and storage area. The shed is first shown on the later 1914 edition of the 25" OS map, but in a slightly different configuration to that of today, and later maps show that at the W end of the building a N-S section has been removed.
To the E of the main limestone kiln are several stone built buildings. One group still retain their pantiled roofs (NO 3439 0859). Another (NO 3443 0859), a two storey house, which has been cut into the bank, and subsequently altered for use as a byre or stable. The building is now roofless, but is depicted roofed on the 1st edition of 1856 (ibid) with a small garden between it and the road. A group of three clamp-kilns are also depicted on the map of 1856 in the angle of the public road and the track which leads down to the drying shed. No trace of these kilns could be discerned in an area of disturbed ground immediately S of the shed. Nothing could be found of a further series of about seven clamp-kilns, that are shown running in an arc on the S side of the road in an area of spoil dumps and it is likely that they have been subsequently covered by the later workings. Traces of two clamp-kilns were noted immediately W of the track which leads to the limestone mines.
The large kiln was fed by a tramway; it ran from the limestone mine and was carried over the public road on a bridge. The stone-built retaining wall and abutments show evidence of at least three phases of rebuilding, reflecting the changes to the tramway system that have occurred over the past century. The bridge span has been removed, but it was still in place when aerial photographs were taken in 1946 (visible on vertical air photograph RAF 106G/Scot/UK/120, 4429, flown 1946). Associated with the tramway are two machinery plinths, one at NO 3432 0858 which is surrounded by a stone building standing up to five courses high on its S side, the other (NO 3434 0855), enclosed by the footings of a concrete building. Both plinths retain their engine fixing bolts in situ. The machinery plinths probably housed winding engines to provide power for a cable haulage system from the limestone mines.
All evidence of the miners rows which stood immediately S of the public road(NO 3420 0853 and NO 3427 0855), have been removed. The later edition of the 2nd edition 25-inch map, (1914) shows them roofed and accompanied by gardens, but by 1965 they were unroofed (OS 1:2500 map 1965).
A number of limestone mines are cut into the escarpment on the S side of the quarry. The remains of the tramways and tracks which served these mines can still be traced through dense undergrowth. One mine can be entered (NO 3434 0853), and, within it, a series of galleries, cut using the pillar and stoop method, are set off from the central level which runs due S into the escarpment. A small watchman's hut has been cut into the rock-face at the entrance to this mine.
Visited by RCAHMS (DE) November 1996 and May 1997
