Nairn, High Street, Town And County Buildings

This building, which occupies the site of an earlier tolbooth, is situated on the NW side of the High Street, slightly recessed from the adjacent street-front. It comprises a two-storeyed L-plan block of 1818-19, which was considerably altered in 1868-70, and a rear prison-wing of 1844 flanking an elongated courtyard.

The main block measures 20.2m across its principal (SE) front by 7.2m, with the original SW wing projecting a further 4.7m to the NW The main front is of sandstone ashlar, with rusticated quoins at the angles and at the steeple, while the other elevations are of coursed or random rubble, harled in some parts. The SE front is offive bays, having tall rectangular first-floor windows above a moulded stringcourse, and terminates in flat-topped parapets enclosing hipped roofs. The advanced central bay forms the lower part of a three-stage steeple which carries a pyramidal lead-covered spire 27.4m in overall height. Its ground-floor doorway has a round-arched tympanum in a rectangular frame, and the first-floor window is of two tall round-headed lights within a labelmould, while at the third stage there is a round-arched niche flanked by narrow windows. The elaborate parapet and spire of 1868-70 replaced a simple crenellated parapet enclosing an octagonal belfry and spire, with clock-dials on the principal faces of the belfry and round-arched openings in the oblique ones.

The interior of the building has been extensively altered, and most of the fittings date from the renovations of 1868-70, or a restoration for local authority use in the 1980s. The courtroom at first-floor level, which runs through the depth of the main block and SW wing, has a coved ceiling enriched with a guilloche frame and central rose. The scale-and-platt stair retains its position in the NW half of the steeple, and rises to the second floor where there is a vaulted document-store. In the belfry there is a bell 0.59m in diameter and cast by Thomas Mears in 1843, which replaced two smaller bells dated 1699 and 1769.

Although the building was commonly referred to at the time of its construction as 'the jail', only two cells were provided and it was reported in 1837 that one of the court-rooms had been converted for the use of prisoners, as well as a smaller room. Plans were produced by Thomas Brown in 1842 for a two-storeyed prison-wing having cells entered from stone flagged corridors, and construction was in progress in 1844; the wing was extended to the NW, with additional cells and a new stair, after 1868.

HISTORY

Nairn had a tolbooth whose poor state of repair was the subject of complaint by a prisoner in 1670. In 1716 the townhouse and tolbooth were burnt 'by His Majesty's Forces when they kept guard therein', but funds for rebuilding were not available until about 1740. An engraving of the tolbooth that was demolished in 1818 shows a massive tower carrying a tall polygonal belfry and short spire, but a reference to 'the steeple of the prison' in connection with an election riot of 1754 may imply that there was also a lower block.

The need for a new jail, whose cost would be shared equally with the county, was first discussed in 1816, and additional ground was obtained in the following year. Its construction was carried out in 1818-19, the mason-contractor being John Wilson, under the superintendence of 'Mr Smith, architect', at a total cost of £ 1,391 15s 9d. In 1868 tenders were invited for 'considerable additions', to plans by the Inverness architects A and W Reid, and the work was completed in 1870.

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

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).