Birr Barracks was constructed primarily from 1809 to 1812 as a permanent military garrison for Birr but was burnt to the ground by members of the Irish Republican Army in 1922. A newspaper report in the Kings County Chronicle, dated 7 August 1919, recorded a series of mock training and sandbagged trenches being constructed in the Fourteen Acres to train troops for service in World War One. The site of these trenches was possibly identified by geophysical survey, before a community dig in August 2018 confirmed two linear sets of training trenches survived at the site. Want to know more… contact us or see Archaeology Ireland 33(2) or Offaly Heritage 11.