Survey Data
Reg No
31804053
Rating
Regional
Categories of Special Interest
Architectural, Historical, Social, Technical
Original Use
Court house
In Use As
Court house
Date
1820 - 1840
Coordinates
180239, 302438
Date Recorded
25/07/2003
Date Updated
--/--/--
Description
Detached three-bay two-storey courthouse, built c.1830, with flanking recessed single-storey entrance bays. Hipped slated roof with rendered chimneystacks to rear. Tooled coursed cut stone façade. Giant-order pilasters to façade with string course, cornice and round-headed recessed blind doorways, end bays having fanlights. Memorial plaque to Count Plunkett to central bay. Marble plaque to north bay with bust in relief of 'An Piarsagh' (sic) (Patrick Pearse, leader of the 1916 Rising). Stone panels with shield devices above entrance doors with chains hung like garlands. Timber sash windows with stone sills to upper storey. Courthouse approached by a flight of limestone steps.
Appraisal
This refined court house is of social and historical significance to the town of Boyle. Set back in an open location allowing for a fuller appreciation of this finely-executed building, the court house, with its garlands of chains tells the sombre storey of the use that this public building had, and uses symbolism to portray the part it played in the Irish judicial system.