These structures, known as ice houses, were a standard feature of prosperous Irish demesnes from the eighteenth century onwards, and the example at Garbally in County Galway is a quiet survivor of that era, when controlling temperature was a matter of careful architecture rather than electricity.

Garbally Demesne, outside Ballinasloe, was the seat of the Clancarty family, and the estate was developed across the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries into a substantial country property. Ice houses on such estates were typically built into a north-facing bank or hillside to minimise heat penetration, with thick earth or masonry walls, a domed or vaulted interior, and a small entrance designed to limit warm air from entering. The ice stored within could keep perishables fresh, chill wine, and produce the elaborate frozen desserts that were fashionable at formal dining tables of the period. The Garbally structure represents this functional, largely invisible side of estate life, the infrastructure that supported the household rather than the architecture meant to impress a visitor.