Casemates Prison

Looming over the southern side of Dockyard [1] is Casemates Prison, a former military barracks for Royal Marines built by convicts in the 1830s. The grim two-story structure is made of hard area limestone, its thick walls and vaulted roof built to sustain enemy cannon and mortar fire.

When the British Navy left Dockyard in 1951, Casemates became the island’s main prison for housing convicted criminals over the next four and a half decades. Casemates closed in 1995, when a new prison facility, Westgate, was built just outside the Dockyard gates on Pender Road.

Casemates is not open to the public, but there have been talks about turning it into a museum.