Publication Account
Date 1996
Event ID 1017917
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1017917
The surviving remains of the tolbooth, which stand on an island site at the Wend of Main Street, consist of the W belltower and the adjacent gable-wall of the two-storeyed main block. The walls are constructed of sandstone rubble and the gable has crowsteps and off-set quoins, while the quoins of the tower are channelled. The main block measured 5.8m in width and was probably about 16m in length, while the tower, which carries an ogival slated spire, is 2.7m wide and projects 2.2m from the gable. The detail of the building suggests a late 17th-century date and the spire is similar to that of the old parish church at Alloa.
HISTORY
Until 1592 no provision was made for a tolbooth at Clackmannan, the sheriff having been 'compellit to hald courts opinlie at the mercat croce ... and to keep in ward the transgressouris and malefactors within his dwelling hous'. In that year Parliament ordered 'ane tolbuith to be biggit ...upoun the commoun hie street thairofbe wast [west of] the croce where the samyn may maist commodiouslie serve and be best sparit'. In 1765 Sir Lawrence Dundas gifted a new bell to the burgh, and a new clock was donated in 1865. By 1792 the tolbooth was described as 'a heap of ruins', although courts and elections were still held there, and in 1822 it was abandoned, only the bell-tower being retained.
MERCAT CROSS
Immediately SW of the tolbooth there stands the mercat cross, whose shaft is decorated with the Bruce arms, having been donated by Sir Henry Bruce in the 17th century. The ballfinial and steps have been renewed, but the lower part of the shaft still shows wear, possibly caused by prisoners' chains. In 1833 the ancient ' stone of Manau' (which gave its name to Clackmannan), a massive tapered block with round capstone, was moved to its present site S of the tolbooth.
Information from ‘Tolbooths and Town-Houses: Civic Architecture in Scotland to 1833’ (1996).
