Four Courts
The name is a legal fossil — the four courts it references were abolished in 1877, yet the building outlasted an empire and a revolution.
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Ireland's principal justice hub has operated near this Liffey site since courts first crossed the river in 1606. The original four — Chancery, King's Bench, Exchequer, and Common Pleas — gave the building its name before being swept away by an 1877 act. Today the Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, and Dublin Circuit Court all operate under the same anachronistic title.
What to look for
- The name itself — a record of four courts abolished nearly 150 years ago that no longer sit here
- The Inns Quay riverside address, where courts first moved in 1606 before briefly retreating back into the city
- Four distinct active courts inside — Supreme Court, Court of Appeal, High Court, Dublin Circuit Court — a different four than the name recalls
On Inns Quay on the north bank of the Liffey; it is an active working courthouse.
Four Courts is one of 35 sights worth the detour in Dublin, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Dublin pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Dublin
- Aviva StadiumOne 51,711-seat bowl jointly owned by rugby and football — two governing bodies, one ground, no separate home for either.
- Dublin CastleThe river that gave Dublin its name still flows beneath your feet — and the building above it ran Ireland for 750 years.
- Croke ParkThe fourth-largest stadium in Europe holds 82,300 people — almost entirely for sports most of the world has never watched.
- National Library of IrelandIreland's paper memory — manuscripts, photographs, and newspapers free to open on the spot.
- St Patrick's CathedralIreland's national cathedral has never had a bishop — that role belongs to the rival church 400 metres up the road.
- Spire of DublinA 120-metre stainless-steel pin planted on the exact spot where an IRA bomb in 1966 — and a controlled demolition six days later — erased Nelson's Pillar.