Cast iron fire place - or is it an outdoor fire pit???

That will rust like a motherfucker.

We had a cast iron log burner. When renovating our house it was left outside under a plastic tarpaulin. At the end of the building process it was completely covered in rust inside and out. It took hours with an angle grinder to remove all the rust, it then needed repainting with fireproof paint and for good measure all the seals replacing.

So if you thinking of leaving it outside it will get fucked up fast.

Just wanted to say, it's a nice item and as someone who grew up partly in the countryside I understand the enjoyment of a wood fire. Was a focal point of the family home for us for years.

I started looking into all this when I suffered fume and smoke exposure at work and got sick. I now have a very low tolerance for particulates and regularly have to shut all the windows in my flat due to people burning wood nearby. My sinuses block up immediately, I get headaches and a rasping cough. For anyone with asthma or other respiratory conditions domestic wood burning makes life miserable. Domestic solid fuel burning accounts for a growing proportion of urban air pollution, mainly because wood is the dirtiest fuel there is, even worse than diesel. Air pollution contributes to around 40k premature deaths a year.