The barracks were built as part of the British response to the threat of the French Revolution and were completed in 1793.[1] Built along three sides of a quadrangle,[2] they were occupied by various cavalry regiments who would exercise their horses along Portobello Beach.[3]
Regiments there were the Dragoon Guards, Light Dragoons, 9th Lancers, Inniskilling Dragoons, 7th Hussars and the Royal Scots Greys.[4]
A General Court Martial was convened at the barracks on 25 September 1820 by order of Major-General Sir Thomas Bradford, Commander in Chief, Scotland, to try all such prisoners brought before it, with Colonel Sir William Williams K.C.B. (later Major-General William Williams (1776–1832)) as presiding officer.[5]
They became the home of the Royal Scots Greys in the late 19th century[6] but were condemned as insanitary and unfit for occupation by cavalry regiments in the early 20th century; this gave rise to concerns that the Royal Scots Greys would be disbanded leaving Scotland without a cavalry regiment.[7] In practice the Royal Scots Greys moved to Redford Barracks and Piershill Barracks continued to be used on a much smaller scale by the Royal Horse Artillery.[7]
The barracks were vacated in 1934[8] and demolished by 1938, shortly before the start of the Second World War.[1] The site is now occupied by the Piershill Square tenement blocks which were constructed in 1937–38 using stone from the old barracks.[8] The blocks were created as Council housing by the City Architect, Ebenezer James MacRae.[9]
