These structures, typically built into a slope or mound and heavily insulated with earth, were used to store ice harvested from frozen ponds and rivers during winter, keeping it usable well into the warmer months. The ice house at Monivea Demesne in County Galway is one such example, a quiet reminder of the logistical complexity behind the apparent ease of Georgian and Victorian country-house life.

Monivea Demesne was the seat of the French family, most notably associated with Robert French, an improving landlord of the eighteenth century who developed the village of Monivea and its surroundings in some detail. Estate ice houses were working structures rather than ornamental ones, usually sited near a water source and positioned to minimise heat exposure. Their design, often a domed or vaulted chamber set below ground level with a drainage sump at the base to carry away meltwater, could keep ice frozen for months when properly packed with straw or sawdust for insulation. The Monivea example sits within the demesne landscape that once supported a formal estate with all of the ancillary buildings such an establishment required.