People from the Topped Mountain area recently marked the restoration of their roadside, lime kiln by holding an evening,outdoor ceilidh beside Topped mountain lough. Lime kilns were also fresh in people's minds as the Lesser spotted Ulster programme on television, had just shown Drumquin's efforts of lighting up their lime kiln.

For the Topped Mountain folk , breathing fire back into the belly of their roadside lime kiln was a wholesale community effort as the industrial kiln had laid in a totally dilapidated state until this summer.

Many hands were involved in the torturous cleaning out of the lime kiln's orange brick lined oven together with the re pointing of the 12 foot high sandstone walls and the rebuilding of surrounding walls with pink sandstone from the area.

With the work completed the locals felt what better way to mark the recent designated heritage weekend by the environment agency than to light the kiln and have a ceilidh.

At least, the event of music ,dance, food and fire would have a sense of occasion and theatre about it.

So it turned out to be the case as up to one hundred rural folk turned out to dance the Autumn night away against the orange glow of the kiln's fire. People all generations, religions and class gathered from as far away as south Tyrone to "dance the bit out" in the knowledge that the dreaded midgets had no chance with the smoke bellowing up out from the belly of the lime kiln.

All the chat was about the recent huge rise in costs of artificial fertilizer and how the next day the lime kiln would churn out powdry lime reduced from limestone rock that had been fired in the lime kiln. Memories abounded of lime whitewashed, sun reflecting cottages, walls having been plastered with lime and lime that was spread onto fields to yield a better crop.

Approaching midnight, the cross community event had been an outstanding success. For liam cox , the project coordinator , the event was all about people thriving on each others company and showing that local heritage can come alive through community led participation.