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Kirkcudbright Tolbooth

1629 establishments in ScotlandArt museums and galleries in Dumfries and GallowayBuildings and structures completed in 1629Category A listed buildings in Dumfries and GallowayGovernment buildings completed in the 17th century
History of Dumfries and GallowayKirkcudbrightListed government buildings in ScotlandPrisons in ScotlandVisitor centres in ScotlandWitchcraft in Scotland
Kirkcudbright Tollbooth geograph.org.uk 841001
Kirkcudbright Tollbooth geograph.org.uk 841001

Kirkcudbright Tolbooth is a historic municipal building in Kirkcudbright in Kirkcudbrightshire in the administrative area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Built between 1627 and 1629 to serve the town as a centre of commercial administration, a meeting place for the council, and a prison, it was used for all these roles until the late eighteenth century when the council moved much of its business to new, larger premises they had constructed across the street; the tolbooth remained in use as a prison until the early nineteenth century, after which it remained in council ownership and was put to a variety of uses. Amongst the people incarcerated in the tolbooth during its use as a prison were people accused of witchcraft, and as late as 1805 it was used to imprison a woman convicted of pretending to be a witch. It was also used to imprison Covenanters during the Killing Time of 1679–1688; in 1684 a crowd stormed the building, killing a guard and freeing the Covenanters held within. American naval hero John Paul Jones was held in the tolbooth in 1770, following his arrest on suspicion of homicide after a sailor under his command died following a flogging Jones had ordered. Kirkcudbright Tolbooth was designated a Category A listed building in 1971. It was renovated in the 1990s, and is currently used as a visitor centre and art gallery.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Kirkcudbright Tolbooth (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Kirkcudbright Tolbooth
St Mary's Wynd,

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Latitude Longitude
N 54.835555555556 ° E -4.0558333333333 °
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St Mary's Wynd

St Mary's Wynd
DG6 4JU
Scotland, United Kingdom
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Kirkcudbright Tollbooth geograph.org.uk 841001
Kirkcudbright Tollbooth geograph.org.uk 841001
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Nearby Places

Borgue Old House
Borgue Old House

Borgue Old House is a ruined Y-plan house, about 300 metres (0.2 mi) east of Borgue in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Built in 1680, but probably incorporating the fabric of an older building, its large main block has two projecting wings at either end of its south face; another wing in the middle of the north face probably contained the stairway, but this is no longer present. Each of the two main stories has three interconnecting rooms, on in each of the wings on the south face, and one in the main block. The main block would also have had an attic, but is now roofless. The main entrance, with molded stonework surround, is in the south face of the main block. Also in the south wall is a surviving chimney which rises above the wall level. On the ground floor is a large mantelpiece, with a lintel supported by corbels; architectural historian John Gifford asserts that this fireplace cannot be older than the early seventeenth century, and thus must be part of the older building that the house was built around. There is a single-storey building attached to the south-east wing, which probably formed part of a courtyard when the building was in use, and there is a large garden, probably laid out in the eighteenth century, partially enclosed by rubble walls. Nearby is the current Borgue House, a nineteenth-century mansion, which is still in use. Borgue Old House was the home of Hugh Blair of Borgue, an eccentric laird whose unusual behaviour has led modern scholars to speculate that he may have had autism spectrum disorder. The house was designated a Category A listed building in 1971. As of 2014, the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland records that the upper parts of the walls and chimneys are precariously balanced, and that the inside is overgrown.