A Victorian lime kiln just north of Langcliffe, its pitch-black vaulted tunnel running round in one long loop
The Hoffmann Kiln is the biggest survivor of the Craven Lime Works, a limestone quarry and kiln site in Ribblesdale. The Craven Lime Company built it in 1873 to a design patented by the German engineer Friedrich Hoffmann, whose idea was a kiln that never went out. Inside, a single vaulted tunnel runs round in a long oval, split into 22 chambers. Workers loaded limestone into one chamber while the fire burned in another and quicklime was drawn from a third, and the fire travelled right round the circuit in about six weeks. The kiln shut in 1931, had a brief second life from 1937, and closed for good in 1939. It is now a scheduled monument and the best preserved kiln of its kind in England.
You can walk in through any of the arched openings in the outer wall. Once you are inside, the tunnel curves away into the dark in both directions, so bring a torch and expect an uneven floor. A signed trail leads round the old lime works from the edge of Langcliffe, and Stainforth Force is a short walk further up the valley.
