Publication Account
Date 1986
Event ID 1017387
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017387
This large church-like building stands at the corner of the High Street in Kirkcudbright, a striking terminal feature of the vista from each direction. Together with the group of 17th and 18th century houses to the east, it symbolises Kirkcudbright in a manner which no other building manages to achieve. The tower and spire contribute to its visual qualities, but it is by no means the most refined, the biggest, nor even the oldest building in the town. What the tolbooth possesses in strong measure is quite simply-character.
The building betrays much evidence of additions and alterations. The western third was added, as was the eastern end, accompanied by the forestair. The tower itself is of a distinctly different masonry and style, and represents a third addition. There are now only vestiges of the main doorway with its round-headed moulded surround. Large windows lit the main rooms on the fIrst floor, and small ones were associated with prison-cells on the upper floor.
On the landing of the forestair is the mercat cross of 1610. It was moved here in the 19th century from a position now marked by a flat sunken stone in the High Street north of the tolbooth. The base of the forestair contains a well, and a plaque commemorates the introduction of gravitation water-supply in 1762-3. Other details include 'the old iron 'jougs', by which malefactors were publicly manacled, and on top of the spire a weather-vane in the form of a sailing-ship, said to commemorate the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The clock is modem, but its square-dialled, one-handed predecessor is still preseIved in the Stewartry Museum. Possibly of Dutch origin, it was in existence by 1576 and was installed in this building in about 1642. There is a bell of 1646, and one of 1724 which is now in the museum.
The nucleus of this building was erected during a two year period after 30 March 1625. At that date the provost and magistrates of the burgh obtained a grant (taken out of the fines of the commission of the justices of the peace) towards building a tolbooth and strong prison-house 'within the heart and body of their town'. A subvention towards works of repair was recorded in 1731. It was eventually replaced as town hall by the building erected in 1878 at the junction of St Mary's Street and Church Street.
Literary fame arrived earlier, for the tolbooth was almost certainly the model for the prison in the denouement ofScott's Guy Manneling.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: Dumfries and Galloway’, (1986).
