Butcher’s shop in Tullow to become restaurant

THE owner of a former butcher’s shop on Bridge Street in Tullow has received permission to turn the premises into a restaurant.

According to plans submitted to Carlow Co Council in December 2025, the restaurant will have space for approximately ten tables and will operate an ancillary takeaway service from the kitchen. It will be open from noon to 10.30pm daily. The archway on the right-hand side is to be closed off with new walls and a door. The apartment above the shop is to be retained as a residential unit.

Consultant engineers working on behalf of the applicant, Wilson Gao, assured the council that the existing shopfront, which has unique arched windows, will not change. They said signage and window displays will be consistent with what was there previously and that the development will ‘positively contribute by reactivating a vacant unit, supporting the evening economy and providing a complementary town centre use without adding to the proliferation of takeaway premises’.

In granting permission for the change of use into a restaurant and the associated site works, the council outlined 11 conditions, including that signage above the restaurant must be agreed with the council before it is installed. The owner must also employ an archaeologist to monitor the excavation and installation of a new concrete foundation.