Ice Or Deer Cave, Auchinleck House is a Grade B listed building in the East Ayrshire local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 31 January 1992.
Ice Or Deer Cave, Auchinleck House
- WRENN ID
- gentle-minaret-bramble
- Grade
- B
- Local Planning Authority
- East Ayrshire
- Constituency
- Kilmarnock and Loudoun MP: Lillian Jones (Lab)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 31 January 1992
- OS grid reference
- NS 508 232
- Coordinates
- 55.48031, -4.36195
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
Probably dating from the mid-18th century, the Ice or Deer Cave is an ice and meat storing cave carved into the red sandstone bank of Dippel Gorge on the Auchinleck Estate. It features a short entrance tunnel, approximately 2 feet 6 inches wide, which leads to an egg-shaped chamber measuring roughly 12 feet high and 10 feet wide. The chamber was originally filled with ice and sealed with a stone lid.
The ice house was used for storing salted meat over the winter months. While the cave itself may be earlier, potentially serving previous houses on the Auchinleck Estate, its close proximity to the mid-18th century mansion, its drive, associated bridges, and Boswell’s Summerhouse suggests a broadly contemporary date.
Local climate
Ice Or Deer Cave, Auchinleck House sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,390 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 97% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 96% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 33 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 53% of listed buildings. Of these, 18 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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Nearby listed buildings
- Sandstone Bridge, Dipple Gorge, Auchinleck House
- Boswell's Summerhouse, Auchinleck House
- Iron Bridge, Dipple Gorge, Auchinleck House
- Ten Shilling Side Bridge, Dippol Burn, Auchinleck House
- Auchinleck House
- Ha-Ha, The Lawn, Auchinleck House
- Coachhouse, Auchinleck House
- Dovecot, Auchinleck House
- Barnsdale, Auchinleck House
- Stables, Auchinleck House