Ice House, Helmsdale is a Grade B listed building in the Highland local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 7 March 1984.
Ice House, Helmsdale
- WRENN ID
- veiled-balcony-curlew
- Grade
- B
- Local Planning Authority
- Highland
- Constituency
- Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP: Jamie Stone (LD)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 7 March 1984
- OS grid reference
- ND 025 153
- Coordinates
- 58.11656, -3.65582
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
This is an ice house built in 1824. It is a large, single-chambered structure vaulted and built into the side of a slope, constructed of coursed rubble with ashlar dressings. The north-facing front has a wide, curved, and coped frontage with a centrally placed door, and a slightly later, small, shuttered window to the right. Projecting wing walls enclose a small semi-circular court, which is bounded by a coped rubble wall. A wide entrance is marked by plain gate piers and simple cast-iron double gates. The roof is turf covered, and an ice chute is located at the rear. The ice house was built at a cost of $100. It is one of several similar ice houses found at Brora and Little Ferry. Correspondence from James Loch to the Countess of Sutherland dated 25th September 1824, held within the National Library of Scotland's Sutherland Papers (Department 313/111/ Box 24), provides further details.
Local climate
Ice House, Helmsdale receives an average of 950 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 73% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 51% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 26 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 72% 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 0.2°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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