The Garrison

The Garrison was the headquarters of the British forces in the eastern Caribbean from the eighteenth century, and it survives more completely than any comparable site in the region: officers' quarters, the main guard house with its clock tower, magazines, and St Ann's Fort around a savannah that was the parade ground and is now the racecourse. It holds what is thought to be the largest collection of seventeenth-century iron cannon anywhere, including several rare cannon marked with Cromwell's republican arms. Beneath it runs a network of tunnels, rediscovered and opened to visitors, dug to move troops and powder under fire. It is inscribed with Bridgetown as World Heritage.

What you actually see

• The cannon collection - the largest of seventeenth-century iron guns anywhere.
• The garrison tunnels - passages under the savannah, opened by tour.
• The main guard and clock tower - the red and yellow centrepiece.
• The savannah - the old parade ground, now the racecourse.

When to go

December to April is the dry season. Race days at the savannah are the liveliest, with the Gold Cup in late February or March the biggest. Tunnel tours run at set times and are worth booking. The Changing of the Sentry ceremony runs on certain days.

Honest expectations

Several of the garrison buildings are in poor repair and some are closed or in other use, so what you can enter is less than what stands. Tunnel tours are guided, timed and limited. The savannah is exposed and hot in the middle of the day. Interpretation of the enslaved labour behind the site is thin.

Nearby

The Barbados Museum is in the old military prison; Bridgetown is a short walk north.