The fourteen massive lime kilns built of dressed-sandstone are a remarkable feature of Charlestown. They are regarded as one of the most important Industrial Revolution remains in Scotland and indeed the United Kingdom, being Scottish Category A Listed buildings. Built into the hillside below the village, they form a stone facade 110 metres long by 10 metres high.  They are in a generally stable state of preservation   with many features relating to the operation of the kilns still in situ. Most of the kilns were re-faced, probably in the 19th century.
The kilns were built by Charles Bruce, 5th Earl of Elgin, in the late 18th century, building dates quoted vary, but Pevsner states that the first nine were built 1777 to 1778 and the last five in 1792.  They were the largest group of lime kilns in Scotland, producing a third of all lime production, and were particularly important to agriculture for soil improvement     but also for building work to produce mortar, plaster and other lime based products.
Through the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the kilns were part of a major industrial complex of the time, including coal mining, ironworking and salt extraction. Coal and limestone were brought in from the local quarries, also on the Earl's estate. The adjacent harbour was as well built by the Earl and used for transporting the lime products, limestone and importantly coal.  There were local railway lines, also a railway link to Dunfermline. Around the lime kilns there were many ancillary buildings, these have almost entirely gone. The operation ran down from the 1930s and finally closed in 1956. The site is owned by the Broomhall Estate.