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Inverurie, 81 High Street, Town Hall
Tolbooth (17th Century)
Site Name Inverurie, 81 High Street, Town Hall
Classification Tolbooth (17th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Inverurie, Old Town Hall; Inverurie Tolbooth; Market Place
Canmore ID 18887
Site Number NJ72SE 17
NGR NJ 77656 21065
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/18887
- Council Aberdeenshire
- Parish Inverurie
- Former Region Grampian
- Former District Gordon
- Former County Aberdeenshire
Town Hall, Market Place, 1862, J Russell Mackenzie. Replaced a townhouse of 1807, of similar grace to those at Old Aberdeen and Oldmeldrum. The triangular Market Place is dominated by the present baroque, granite ashlar town hall, of
two storeys with projecting end bays topped with handsome lions. Its centrepiece has giant Doric pilasters, and a balustraded parapet from which rises a fanciful, diagonally set cupola of Spanish baroque inspiration in painted wood.
On a sunny day the whole has a pleasing Empire look, but has been unbalanced by the addition of the plain Library and Museum, 1911, H MacLennan of Jenkins & Marr.
Taken from "Aberdeenshire: Donside and Strathbogie - An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Ian Shepherd, 2006. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
NJ72SE 17 77656 21065
(NJ 7765 2109) Old Town Hall (NR)
OS 25" map, Aberdeenshire, (1867)
The house used for the earliest tolbooth now traceable was bought as late as 1643, and stood where No. 81 High Street now is.
J Davidson 1878.
The owner of the present house, dated 1660, verified that the old Town Hall stood where his house, No. 81 High St, now stands at NJ 7765 2106. He showed the investigator a cellar which he believes pre-dates the present structure.
Visited by OS (NKB) 11 October 1964.
Photographic Survey (February 1954 - March 1954)
Photographs of buildings in Inverurie, Aberdeenshire, by the National Buildings Record Scottish Council in February and March 1954.
Photographic Survey (April 1955)
Photographic survey by the Scottish National Buildings Record in 1954.
Publication Account (1977)
The Tolbooth until the last century was located near the site of the Kintore Arms Hotel. A Town House at Inverurie dates back to the seventeenth century when there is a sale recorded in 1642 of 100 merks of the 'eastmost' house of James Fergus which was to act as 'ane tolbuith' (Davidson, 1878, 349). That sale proved a bad investment for the burgh for by 1660 the magistrates were meeting in a 'chalmer' of one of the bailie's houses while awaiting the construction of a new Tolbooth (Davidson, 1878, 349). The 1660 Town House served the burgh until 1868 when it was pulled down to make way for the construction of a dwelling house at No. 81 High Street. A new Town House was subsequently built at the head of High Street in Market Place.
Information from ‘Historic Inverurie: The Archaeological Implications of Development’ (1977).
