Newhailes, Icehouse
Icehouse (Late 18th Century)
Site Name Newhailes, Icehouse
Classification Icehouse (Late 18th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Newhailes House
Canmore ID 122836
Site Number NT37SW 168.01
NGR NT 32689 72568
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/122836
- Council East Lothian
- Parish Inveresk (East Lothian)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District East Lothian
- Former County Midlothian
The Icehouse is set into a mound, to the north of the house, behind the Fruit Store and seems to have been built between 1792 and 1798. It consists of a stone-lined entrance passage, 1.1m wide, 1.8m high and 6.3m in length on the south-west of the chamber, leads to a well preserved ice-chamber (2.5m wide and 4m high) lined with ashlar masonry and supporting an arched brick roof. The egg shaped chamber is built into a mound of raised earth and rubble and is now partially filled.
Archaeological excavations were carried out in 2001 to investigate the entrance way and immediate interior of the Icehouse. These exposed a spiral pathway around the mound and a Victorian ornamental rockery covering the mound, as well as evidence for flagstone flooring to the Icehouse interior.
A local resident recalls the Icehouse ca. 1960 with an elaborate roof garden on top and paths spiralling up, but covered with ivy.
Information from NTS
NT37SW 168.01 32652 72568
NT 3269 7250 A major programme of monitoring, evaluation and architectural recording was undertaken at the mansion house and within its surrounding policies during conservation works between June 2000 and August 2001.
Ice house. Two evaluation trenches examined details of the ice house lying a little to the N of the mansion. One revealed much of the entrance area including the dressed stonework of its frontage and collapsed door; this was overlain by an ornamental Victorian rockery garden.
Sponsor: National Trust for Scotland
T Addyman 2001
Ice house. Fittings from the door, the continuation of a path located in 2001, and rockwork embellishing the entrance that had been added during the Victorian period were all uncovered.
Archive to be deposited in East Lothian SMR and the NMRS.
Sponsor: NTS.
A Daly 2003
Photographic Survey (1 July 1959)
Photographic survey by the Scottish National Buildings Record in July 1959.
Standing Building Recording (13 September 2016)
NT 32682 72564 A baseline standing building survey was carried out, 13 September 2016, of the ruined ice house on the Newhailes Estate. The ice house, which is located NW of Newhailes House, was built in the late 18th century. The main storage area for the ice was built below the ground in an egg-shaped chamber, accessed via a small NE/SW passageway with a small entrance on the SW side. A large mound was created over the structure to further insulate the space. A building and a spiral path were built on the top of the mound in the Victorian period. However, only a few
foundation stones, and one inscribed stone, remain of this garden feature in an area which was, until recently, covered in trees and animal burrows. The icehouse has been abandoned for some time, there is rubble and debris to the base of the main chamber and it has been used as a roost by bats.
Archive: NRHE (intended)
Funder: The National Trust for Scotland
Diana Sproat and Gemma Hudson – AOC Archaeology Group
(Source: DES, Volume 17)
OASIS ID: aocarcha1-266116
