What is recorded here

Arbour Hill Barracks stands north of the Royal Barracks in Dublin, built between 1835 and 1846 as the detention arm of a larger prison and hospital complex. It held nearly a hundred men by 1856 and expanded to over one hundred infantry and forty cavalry by 1867, waiting out decades of imperial routine until the British withdrawal. The nearby cemetery still receives annual commemoration for the buried leaders of the 1916 Rising, while the complex itself passed to the National Army in 1922 and later became a civilian prison.

Arbour Hill Barracks A 19th-century barracks on Arbour Hill was recorded in 2025 in the ‘Our Shared Built Military Heritage: The online mapping, inventorying and recording of the Army Barracks of Ireland, 1690-1921' a project that was funded by the North South Research Programme 2022-2024 and co-led by University College Dublin and The Open University' (Forbes and McGrath 2025). The barracks was described in the inventory of the ‘Army Barracks of Ireland - Our Shared Military Heritage, 1690-1921’ as follows; ‘The barracks at Arbour Hill was part of the larger Arbour Hill prison and hospital complex, situated immediately north of the Royal Barracks in Dublin. This detention barracks and prison were constructed between 1835-46 and a garrison of 99 men was present in 1856. By 1867, the barracks capacity increased to 127 infantrymen and 40 cavalrymen and 50 horses. It remained in use until the British withdrawal from the Irish Free State. The execution by firing squad of the leaders of the 1916 Rising occurred at nearby Kilmainham Jail and their remains were buried with quicklime in the Arbour Hill cemetery. As a result, this site remains the focus for an annual commemorative event. In 1922 the Arbour Hill complex was occupied by the National Army during the Irish Civil War. The hospital remains the property of the Defence Forces while the prison complex has been a civilian prison since 1975'. Compiled by: Caimin O'Brien based on description taken from inventory of the ‘Army Barracks of Ireland - Our Shared Military Heritage, 1690-1921 Date of Compilation: 11 November 2025

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