2003:0298 - BALLINURE, Mahon, Cork

An assessment, followed by excavation of the standing remains of an ice-house associated with Lakeland country house, was carried out before development.

The ice-house comprised a brick-built circular ice-chamber or bowl with a drain below and an entrance passage with evidence of two doorways closing it. The roof of the structure had collapsed into the bowl but was originally domed over the circular chamber and of brick construction. Some evidence of the brick vault over the entrance passage survived in situ, but both the circular chamber and the entrance passage were filled with rubble and topsoil. Outside the ice-house, to the north, a partially cobbled courtyard was present surrounded by a retaining wall.

The internal diameter of the ice-bowl was 5.5m at the level of the passageway floor and the bowl extended 3.5m below this level to the base forming the subterranean component of the ice-house. The entrance passage was 2.15m long and 0.95m wide.

The structure was built during the first half of the 19th century as one of the many features within the demesne lands of Lakeland on the shores of Lough Mahon.