Lime burning was an early industry supplying the lime for mortar in brick and masonry construction and as a forerunner of Portland cement.
Early lime kilns are still found in Otago. And the Sandymount Kiln is a registered Category I Historic Place. At Sandymount the lime burning industry began in the 1860s.
The kilns under consideration in this report were operating by the mid-late 1860s. According to Geoffrey Thornton, James Macdonald, a Scottish stonemason, built a lime kiln in the vicinity in 1865.
Lime was extracted from a hill in the area and fired in these kilns.
By the turn of the century kiln use had declined further as it was more economic to extract lime from Milburn, south of Dunedin,
which had the advantage of being near a railway line, and also as the company developed its North Otago resources.
In 1976 New Zealand Cement Holdings gifted the lower lime kiln, together with the adjacent limestone quarry to the Otago Peninsula Trust.
Restoration work in the late 1970s was supported by the New Zealand Historic Places Trust.
The Dunedin City Council was also keen to encourage interpretation and public access to these significant historic sites.
