User:Orlaith53/sandbox

Buttevant barracks was a 19th century military barracks. The barracks is listed in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage.

Buttevant military Barracks was built in 1812, when the owner of Buttevant castle, John Anderson gifted 23 acres of land in Buttevant to the British Army for the purpose of the construction of a military barracks. Construction of the barracks took nearly three years to complete. The barracks was divided into three quadrangles and hosted an extensive range of buildings and facilities, including a gymnasium, training field, church, school, stables and a parade ground. At any one time the barracks was home to hundreds of soldiers and could accommodate up to 800 soldiers and staff. The main gateway to the barracks was made from limestone and was constructed in the Neo gothic style. A guardhouse which was placed inside this gateway controlled access into the barracks.

Michael Myers Shoemaker visited Buttevant barracks in 1908 and writes of his visit in his book, In Wondering in Ireland (1908). He wrote, '...these barracks at Buttevant are spacious and as barracks go, very comfortable.... The campus or compound, a great green square surrounded by the quarters....often with lawn tennis and cricket going on in its centre and there are always the officers wives and children giving the scene a touch of charm'. He continues by writing, 'on top of the entrance arch are the offices, on the right of the guardhouse and beyond it a large gymnasium. On either side of the green and running at right angles to the entrance are the officers' quarters. While a large barracks for the men forms the fourth side of the square. Back of this is another square, surrounded by a large barracks, while the married man have a separate building beyond these and the colonel lives in a retired pleasant house off in one corner'.

Support required for the everyday running barracks was immense. The barracks provided important commerce for the town and it is estimated that up to the 20th century it is estimated that up to 70% of the towns income came from the barracks. Throughout World War I thousands of men were processed through the barracks before being sent elsewhere. Later, during the Irish War of Independence the barracks was an important staging point for British forces. With the departure of British forces at the end of the Irish War of Independence, the barracks was abandoned. It was later temporarily occupied by both anti-treaty and pro-treaty parties and was eventually burned and destroyed during the Irish Civil War.

Capt Henry Craigie Brewster. Buttevant Barracks, c.1840s

Today, evidence of the barracks is all but gone, with only an incomplete perimeter wall and the entrance to the barracks still remaining. The area where the barracks stood is now divided into three sections, one is occupied by Buttevant GAA and the two others are occupied by local businesses.