The Museum Centre – The Lime Route has several interests, considering natural and cultural heritage values. Placed at Sítio dos Lameiros, Municipality of São Vicente, this centre encloses an area close to 12 000 m2 where, besides its local landscape beauty, we find two limestone quarries, a lime kiln and other constructions used to support farming and cattle-raising, such as haylofts, cultivation fields and levadas (water channels), very typical of Madeira’s landscape.

Limestone quarries

Near the Barrinho stream, at 475 meters of altitude, there are two quarries semicircular in section, placed at a sea limestone outbreak with fossils from the Miocene (over 5 millions years old) unique to this region of Madeira Island.

The farm and cattle raising structures

Integrated in a rural environment the Lime Route Museum Centre preserves some buildings and characteristics typical of Madeira’s rural landscape, such as the haylofts, cultivation fields, levadas (water channels), an irrigation poll and a transport cable.

The pathway that goes through this site maintains its old configuration and allows us to appreciate all the beauties this site has to offer.

Geology, flora and fauna

Geographic sething of The Museum Centre – The Lime Route is partially included in the Madeira’s Nature Park.
Concerning the geology of this site there is a dominance of sea limestone, brown- red tuft and congregations, as well as several types of marine fossils.
Here we can observe several species of our indigenous forest (the Laurissilva which is classified as World Natural Heritage by UNESCO). The laurel (Laurus novocanariensis), the Madeira mahogany (Persea indica), the sanguinho (Rhamnus glandulosa) the lily of the valley tree (Clethra arbórea), the “pau branco” (Picconia excelsa) and the madeiran whortleberry (Vaccinium padifolium) are some of those species.
This area is very attractive to several endemic bird species and subspecies, such as the Madeira laurel pigeon (Columba trocaz), the chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs madeirensis) and the the madeiran firecrest (Regullus ignicapillus madeirensis).

The lime kiln house

The lime kiln house was built with stone masonry partly plastered inside and outside, occasionally using limestone from the quarry. It has a rectangular shape and a lean-to roof. The kiln’s structure has a cylindrical shape and was built with ready stone.

The kiln’s entrance has a vault arch that narrows to the grid point. This is a kiln of mixed burning, loaded with alternating layers of limestone and wood or coal.
The lime uses

The limestone from the quarries had several uses, it was used in stone pavements, fonts, millstones, lime production, along with other uses.
 After it was transported to the lime kiln house, the limestone was burned to produce lime wich was used in mortars, walls whitening, soil stabilizer and funeral practices to prevent infections and diseases spreading.