Castle Semple, Ice-house

NS36SE 9.16 37428 60111

For Castle Semple (house) and associated buildings, see NS36SE 9.00.

Formerly entered as NS36SE 18 at cited location NS 372 602.

NS 372 602. Beside the shallow rectangular pond referred to as a fish pond, is an artifical cave or chamber cut in the solid rock, 9ft by 8ft 3 ins with rounded corners, the roof arched to a maximum height of 7ft, and the paved floor 1ft below the entrance and paved with slabs. The entrance, including an arched lintel, is 2ft 2 ins wide and 5ft 3ins high. A path connects it with a well-known icehouse, about 100yds downstream. There, only the rear and forewalls are original, and the brick faces, square loading hole in the roof, and the circular, brick-lined inner chamber, about 10ft deep are probably late 18th century improvements. The cave is possibly an even earlier ice-house, and the "fish pond" which lies apart from the known Estate fish pond is possibly an ice-pond, from which the blocks were cut and stored in the adjacent cave. The position would suggest a connection with the nearby collegiate church (16th century: see NS36SE 10).

F Newall and T Anderson 1969.