Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Publication Account
Date 1995
Event ID 1016660
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016660
This strong tower, solidly built in Tain stone, has a medieval appearance but was begun in 1706 and its upper works completed in 1733. It replaced and probably copied closely an earlier Tolbooth of 1631 which had collapsed after a storm. The old Council House next to the tower has been replaced by a new Court House built in 1848-9 and designed by Thomas Brown in Scottish Baronial style with turrets and crenellations to match the roof of the Tolbooth. At this time the ground floor of the tower was altered to provide a main entrance to the new Court House, and a new door and window inserted. Outside the door stands the old mercat cross.
A stone turnpike stair within the tower leads to the upper floors. The top room with its stone vaulted roof, small door and tiny windows was used as a prison. Above this the stair leads out onto the roof, with a central turret housing a bell made in Holland in 1630 for the old Tolbooth, and four corner turrets. The present clock of 1877 with three faces replaces an earlier one made in Tain. The turrets have conical roofs made of stone blocks pierced by curious small windows, tiny imitations of dormers. Such stone belfry roofs seem to have been a local speciality. Three others are known, all on churches, a conical-roofed tower at Kilmuir Easter (NH 757731) dated 1616, a remarkable domed belfry at Tarbat Old Church, Portmahomack (NH 914840), and a splendid turreted belfry at Kirkhill near Beauly, West Inverness-shire (NH 549457), built in 1632. Except for Tarbat, thought to be later, these may all have been built by the same mason.
Unusually for such early work the architect of the 18th-century Tolbooth is known. He was Alexander Stronach, one of a family of masons (their surname is Gaelic for mason) who worked for Lord Tarbat round the Cromarty Firth. The Burgh accounts for 1732 include this entry: ' Item: For Alexr Stronach's morning drink when he came in to see the Bartizan head-7s 6d.' Relics of Tain as a Royal Burgh may be seen in Tain Museum, including a map of the Marches of Tain drawn in 1730, a fine set of Burgh weights and measures dated 1835, and silver marked with the Tain assay stamp. (See also St Duthac's Church, Tain, no. 59.)
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Highlands’, (1995).
