Detached five-bay single-storey court house, built c.1860 with lower single-bay section to the east. The building is roughly rectangular in plan, however to the front there is a full-height projecting gabled bay. The façade is finished in painted lined render with painted stone quoins. The overhanging gable-ended pitched roof is covered in artificial slate and has decorative bargeboards with finials. Roughly to the centre of the roof there is a decorative ogee-domed cupola / clock tower. The entrance is set within the gabled projection and consists of a panelled double door with a semi-circular fanlight with 'spoke' tracery. The windows are flat-headed and have three over three and two over two timber sash frames. Replacement metal rainwater goods. The building faces onto a roadside, but is separated from it by a small area enclosed with a simple but decorative mid 20th-century wrought-iron railings.
When it was still being used for official District Court business, the Shillelagh courthouse was renowned as being a cold, tired place with inadequate facilities for court staff and the general public.
Three years after the court hearings were moved to Gorey, the Shillelagh courthouse has been transformed into a brand new, much needed community space with proper facilities including a kitchen, heating and wheelchair-accessible toilets.
The transformation has been the result of a massive local community effort.
Funding came from the Wicklow Rural Partnership (WRP) group and was also raised through the sale of a small site owned by Shillelagh People's Property, the community group that will manage the new facility.
Locals got a sneak-peek of the facility while casting their ballots in the general election, but more than 150 people returned last Thursday (June 21) for the official opening of the renovations.