View of Town Hall and Sheriff Court, Castle Street, Rothesay, Bute, from SW

Description View of Town Hall and Sheriff Court, Castle Street, Rothesay, Bute, from SW

Date 21/5/2012

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number DP 139639

Category On-line Digital Images

Scope and Content Rothesay grew up around the 13th-century circular Castle, becoming a royal burgh in 1400/1. The town expanded north along the High Street until two major phases of land reclamation in the 18th and 19th century. This shifted the main axis of the town along the shoreline, with the creation of Montague Street (mid- to late 18th century) and Victoria Street (1839-40). Subsequent development of the town took place along the shoreline, particularly as the town’s popularity as a tourist destination grew during the 19th century. The town centre has developed in a fairly ad hoc manner, as with so many historic towns. This has continued into the 21st century with redevelopment of historic buildings such as the Court House and other smaller infill. Built in 1832 to designs by James Dempster of Greenock, the Town Hall and Sheriff Court on Castle Street sits in a prominent position alongside the Castle. Various additions were made in the mid-19th century. The building contained prison cells, sheriff court and council offices and had an exercise yard which was later filled in during the late 20th century. The building is an imposing presence on the townscape, with its battlemented parapet, with central clock tower. There are groups of tripartite pointed-arched windows at upper floor with smaller six-paned windows below, and smaller still six-paned windows at ground-floor level. The castellation, arrow-slit style windows in the corner towers, and general solid appearance of the building mimics the defensive styling of the nearby 13th-century castle. The building was a prison until 1882, before becoming council offices and chambers. The town's sheriff court later moved into the building before both functions were moved to other premises in the late 20th century. The building has recently (2011) been converted to flats, by Fyne Homes, the local housing association. The redevelopment has retained many of the original features of the building both externally and internally, with original balustraded stairs and stained glass cupola remaining. An element of new-build has been incorporated behind the main frontage of the building, to create a new internal courtyard with 'drying green' area.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/1304943

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap