In a bygone era of 350 million years ago the East Lomonds used to
resound with smoke, fire and noise from the volcanoes and who knows
what kind of wildlife roaming the moors.
Towards more modern times, the noise and smell took on a more
modern ken on the building of a limestone kiln in the area when
around 1800, there was an increasing demand locally for food as a
result of the industrial revolution. The use of lime on the fields
was the straightforward alternative to increase the productivity of
the land and was also used as the main constituent in lime mortar,
used in housebuilding.
Limestone was quarried nearby from here and brought to the kiln
in egg sized pieces before being tipped into the top of the kiln
were it was fired with locally mined coal from nearby Balgonie and
Balbirnie pits.
Imagine the scene – coal smoke, horses, the sound of
hammers breaking the lime and the coal into manageable sized
pieces, smoke belching into the sky and you can get a mild flavour
of bygone times.
These kilns were known as ‘draw kilns’ where one of
the faces was open to the exposed winds of the area causing enough
burning to create the lime for spreading on the nearby fields. Six
men would work a kiln, whereby two were boring and blasting the raw
ore, one lead the horse and cart to the kilnhead, two were breaking
the stone and loading the kiln with the last drawing off the lime
and loading it into the customers carts. A good days work was
thought to be the breaking of 10 bolls of stone (roughly two
tonnes) during a working day of 4 a.m. (four o’clock in the
morning!!) and 5 p.m. of an evening. This earned a weekly wage in
the 1830’s of roughly 10 or 11 shillings... Overall, loads of
hard graft for not too much in cash….
Anyone want a job??