Publication Account

Date 1996

Event ID 1018234

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018234

This two-storeyed rectangular building stands on the S side of Church Street. Measuring 17.4m across the five-bayed main (N) front by 6.6m, it is built of coursed rubble and the hipped roof is slated. The projecting central bay of the N front contains a round-headed arch enclosing a lintelled entrance doorway, nd a round-headed first-floor window rises into the wall-head pediment. This carried a round-arched bell cot which was removed in 1965. Built into the E wall at the wall head there is a re-used lintel inscribed' 1569', possibly from an earlier tolbooth in the market-place at the NW end of the High Street.

Although the appearance of the building indicates that it was extensively rebuilt in the middle of the 19th century, its fabric may incorporate work of 1720, a date which was formerly inscribed above the doorway. In 1837 the upper floor was used as a meeting-hall and council-chamber, while the ground floor contained a market-area and vaulted cell. Modern conversion of the building has obscured any early features of the interior.

On the open platform above the central pediment there is a bell, dated 1792 and believed to have come from the old parish church, which was exchanged with one cast by Thomas Mears and inscribed: GIVEN BY PROVOST BARCLAY TO THE BURGH OF BERVIE 1791. This now hangs in the parish church, and the exchange probably took place when that building was opened in 1837.

Information from ‘Tolbooths and Town-Houses: Civic Architecture in Scotland to 1833’ (1996).