Can anyone tell me about this structure?

Exit · 11-12-2006 3:44am #1

These are photos taken in Belcamp Park (also known as Priorswood Park locally) on the northside of Dublin. I've always wondered what this was. As a kid, it was known as the Fairy Hill. In case you can't see from the picture, the structure is shaped like an igloo. It's covered in muck and overgrown bushes. The only entrance is the one you see in the picture (unless there's some kind of underground entrance)

Right behind it there used to a big house once owned (or at least lived in) by Countess Markiewicz. I'd guess that the whole park (and maybe more surrounding areas) were once part of the grounds of this house. The foundations of the house were there 20ish years ago, but not now.

Is this building some kind of tiny stable or coal bunker? Does anyone have any idea what it might be?

EDIT: Here's a fuller view:

Sep%202006%20028.jpg

Fratton Fred · 11-12-2006 12:05pm

It looks a bit like an Ice house, probably from the old manor house.

Here's an example of a preserved one.

http://www.moseley-society.org.uk/icehouse.htm

damienom · 11-12-2006 7:06pm

Am open to correction but I think there's a similar structure in St Anne's Park, remember running around inside it as a kid, was always told it was one of the delivery tunnels for the old Guinness estate house

Exit · 11-12-2006 7:51pm

Fratton Fred wrote:

It looks a bit like an Ice house, probably from the old manor house.

Here's an example of a preserved one.

http://www.moseley-society.org.uk/icehouse.htm

Thanks, that does seem like a likely explanation.

Archeron · 12-12-2006 3:19pm

That looks exactly like a similar structure on the grounds of Belcamp college, except the one in the college is surrounded by forest. I done a history project on great houses of the area, and it was indeed an ice house for storing meat and food.

Last I seen it, the one in the college wasnt bricked up, but that was a number of years ago, so it probably is by now.

Exit · 12-12-2006 6:46pm

I'll have to check that one out next time I'm in the area.

boneless · 04-01-2007 4:11pm

I saw this thread only today, so sorry about the late reply. It is, I think, an ice house. I didn't know there was one in such a good state of preservation in Dublin... thanks for the pics. There is one in Donadea Forest park in Kildare and one in Larch Hill in Kilmashogue. I am really interested in these structures. Any more examples known to anyone here?

europerson · 04-01-2007 9:02pm

A couple I know in the North-East include one in Dundalk (in Ice House Hill Park of all places!) and in Dún a' Rí Forest Park, just outside Kingscourt in County Cavan. The latter is a nice example. It was built on the Cabra Estate by the Pratt family.