The courthouse, which was designed by John Keane and Henry Whitestone in the neoclassical style and built in ashlar stone, was completed in 1852.

[2] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage facing the junction of Gort Road and New Road; there was a flight of steps leading up to a large hexastyle portico with Ionic order columns supporting an entablature and a modillioned pediment.

[2] A Russian artillery piece, which had been used in the Crimean War, was brought back to Ireland and placed on the lawn outside the building.

[2] A statue of Michael O'Loghlen, former Master of Rolls in Ireland, by the sculptor Joseph Robinson Kirk was installed in the courthouse in the mid-19th century.

[4][5] A monument to Éamon de Valera, former President of Ireland, was designed by the sculptor Jim Connolly and erected outside the courthouse in 1981.