Publication Account

Date 1999

Event ID 1018991

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Publication Account

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1018991

The Courthouse (or Town and County Buildings) dates from the early nineteenth century but stands on the site of a much older tolbooth. The current structure, built in 1818, with additions in 1848 (the prison block) and in the 1860s (a replacement steeple), has a central two-stage tower with four recessed flanking bays. Its large central doorway, polished ashlar dressings, corner gargoyles and crenellated parapets perfectly define the modern, fo1wardlooking aspect of nineteenth-century Nairn High Street. The building operated as the town's council chamber, prison and law court, and occasionally as its schoolhouse. The Courthouse has recently had much of its stonework repaired and cleaned and, despite local government reorganisation, still represents the administrative focus of the town. The immediately previous structure also possessed a prominent steeple, which housed the two town bells until 1707, when one was transferred to the parish church. The council chamber was reached by an external stairway from the High Street which extended over merchants' premises. Outside was the tron, or public weighing-beam. Frequently, on market days, convicted prisoners would be displayed and publicly flogged outside the tolbooth; occasionally their ears would be nailed to the tron or the courthouse door. An earlier structure on the same site is known from the time of Mary, Queen of Scots- this was a low thatched building which stood out into the High Street, the foundations of which may survive beneath the present street surface.

Information from - ‘Historic Nairn: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1999).