Further to Monday’s post about Castle Gore, here is the property’s surviving ice house, located north-west of the now-ruined building and immediately above the river Deel. Prior to the invention of the refrigerator, ice houses were a common feature of country estates, ice being gathered during the winter months and then stored within such sites, usually sunken with an interior lined in brick, in order to preserve the ice for use during summer months. Although the roof is badly overgrown, this example – which probably dates from the late 18th century when Castle Gore was built – preserves much of its original form.
there’s a lot of Ice houses as you say around the place, I know where im from there’s a large icehouse attached to Moydrum castle that’s currently for sale.
https://www.daft.ie/for-sale/bungalow-moydrum-castle-estate-athlone-co-westmeath/1142142
There’s also a very interesting one on Hare island that unlike other ice houses is very central to the lodge etc.
Were there any community or commercial ice houses, maybe in a later period? Did your lochs freeze enough for them to be used? One of my dad’s first jobs was cutting and hauling ice from the town lake probably around 1920 in Massachusetts, USA.
https://patch.com/massachusetts/wakefield/history-the-business-of-harvesting-ice-in-wakefield
Arecently restored ice house
https://www.oldbuilders.com/01_jobs/Ice_house/1_icehouse_01.htm
I remember the old unused ice house of Elm Grove Dairy in Bowling Green Kentucky….now all long gone and covered up with a housing development.