[11] Phoenix Lodge was therefore demolished in 1734, and construction on the magazine fort commenced in 1735 to designs by engineer John Corneille.

[12] At the time the city was relatively poor, prompting the satirist Jonathan Swift to publish a verse on the seeming futility of the fortification: Now's here's a proof of Irish sense/Here Irish wit is seen / When nothing's left that's worth defence/We build a MagazineUnlike de Burgh's nearby star fort, which was primarily earthwork and demolished in the 1830s,[10] Corneille's bastion fort was built of brick and limestone.

The large barrel-vaulted brick magazine chambers themselves are approximately 270 square metres (2,900 sq ft) in size and located to the northwest of the main enclosure.

[17] In the early 20th century, the corner demi-bastions were converted to include concrete pillbox machine-gun posts.

The first occurred on 24 April 1916, during the Easter Rising, when predominantly young members of Fianna Éireann raided the fort for arms and set explosives to blow it up, however, "after setting fires to blow up the magazine’s ordinance; but the fuses burned out before reaching the ammunition and little damage was caused.

The Irish Army continued to operate the facility, including time as an ammunition store, until 1988, when it was handed over to the Office of Public Works (OPW).

[3][25] Some repairs were undertaken in 2016 to allow for the site to be partially opened to the public - initially as part of 1916 Rising centenary events.