Ice House 183m west-north-west of Killerton House

Ice house. Built around 1808 by garden designer and horticulturist, John Veitch, for Sir Thomas Acland. Incorporated within a rock garden in around 1900.

MATERIALS It is constructed primarily of brick, with limestone rubble facing to entrance tunnel and later passage.

PLAN Circular in plan with a covered entrance tunnel; approached from the south-west via a passageway.

DESCRIPTION The ice house is approached from the south-west by an open passage, added around 1900, which is cut into the slope and has retaining walls of limestone rubble. It consists of a brick-built entrance tunnel and the subterranean ice chamber which is covered externally with earth that acts as an insulating layer. It is circular in plan. The angled entrance has a surround of rough-hewn limestone blocks and a large stone lintel; it leads into the brick-lined, brick-floored, entrance tunnel with an arched roof. At the end of this is a second, narrower entrance which has a modern metal grille. It gives access onto the brick-lined ice chamber which has a domed roof. Its walls have three concentric rack-grooves, each over 1m apart, which may have supported timber floors and possibly a timber lining. The brick floor is some 4m below the entrance and has an octagonal drain at its centre from which runs a drainage channel that exits below the southern wall.