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57-575: 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

114-418: A clock; the steeple of the tolbooth's clock tower was considered a mark of civic pride, and of the authority of the council. From the seventeenth century onwards the word became increasingly synonymous with 'prison', and from the eighteenth century town councils started to erect larger and more commodious buildings, known as town houses or council houses, from which to conduct council business, while maintaining

171-417: A glove factory. In 1971 the tolbooth, along with the fountain in its forestair and the mercat cross, were designated a Category A listed building . In 1993 it was renovated by the council, and re-opened by Queen Elizabeth II as an art centre. Kirkcudbright Tolbooth was used at several times in its history to imprison people convicted of practising witchcraft or, in later years, of pretending to do so. In

228-595: A lady of short stature who was placed in the jougs; however, she fell off the box and was strangled, as the chain was too short for her. The jougs on the Isle of Cumbrae survive, attached to a gatepost at the entrance to the Millport Old Cemetery. The "Clachan Oak" is an ancient sessile oak near Balfron in Stirlingshire. It can still be seen bearing metal bands around its trunk to which jougs were once attached for

285-430: A loan of £2000. Construction began in 1627, and the building was completed in 1629. The converted church initially continued to house the town's clock and bell, but in 1642 the council declared "the necessity of ane steple and bellhouse to keep their knok (clock) and bell quhilk (which) is a special ornament belonging to every burgh, and which they are bound by the ancient laws of this kingdom to maintain and uphold". A tax

342-533: A local dignitary commented: Of old, balls and concerts took place in the highest room of the Old Tolbooth, now occupied by the Rifle Company; and I have conversed with persons who told me that they had frequently tripped 'the light fantastic toe' there, over the heads of the miserable debtors and criminals in the prison below. How the ladies dressed out in all their feathers and war paint, with hoops or trains made

399-747: A new facility which was opened by the Princess Royal on 12 July 2018. The war memorial dates from 1921 and was created by the sculptor George Henry Paulin . Like many other remote areas during the Second World War, a 4,700-acre (19 km ) area to the southeast of the town and extending to the coast of the Solway Firth , was acquired by the Army in 1942, as a training area for the D-Day invasion. The area remains in active use for live-firing exercises. Part of

456-512: A segment filmed on location at the town's Johnston Primary School where McDonald led the children in a dance sequence. Kirkcudbright has had a long association with the Glasgow art movement. Several artists, including the Glasgow Boys and the famed Scottish Colourists , such as Samuel Peploe and Francis Cadell , based themselves in the area over a 30-year period from 1880 to 1910, establishing

513-468: A siege in 1547 from the English commander Sir Thomas Carleton but, after the surrounding countryside had been overrun, was compelled to surrender. Kirkcudbright Tolbooth was built between 1625 and 1629 and served not only as the tolbooth , but also the council offices, the burgh and sheriff courts, the criminal prison and the debtors' prison. One of the most famous prisoners was John Paul Jones , founder of

570-530: Is Listed Category B. St Andrew's and St Cuthbert's Church was designed in 1886 by London architect A. E. Purdie (1843–1920), in the Gothic style. It was built on the site of the medieval St Andrew's Church. In 1971 the interior was re-ordered and stripped of its Victorian fixtures and fittings and now features an abstract concrete and iron cross by the Liverpool sculptor Sean Rice (1931–1997), modern stained glass by

627-538: Is the traditional county town of Kirkcudbrightshire . An early rendition of the name of the town was Kilcudbrit; this derives from the Gaelic Cille Chuithbeirt meaning "chapel of Cuthbert ", the saint whose mortal remains were kept at the town between their exhumation at Lindisfarne and reinterment at Chester-le-Street . John Spottiswoode , in his account of religious houses in Scotland, mentions that

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684-509: The 1735 Witchcraft Act was introduced in both England and Scotland, making it impossible to apply penalties to someone for actually practising witchcraft, but allowing for people to be convicted for the pretence of witchcraft; penalties could be applied to people who gained financially by claiming to have supernatural powers. Those who still believed that witchcraft was a real threat had no option but to prosecute those whom they suspected of practising it under this new law. In 1805 Jean Maxwell, who

741-495: The Franciscans , or Grey Friars, had been established at Kirkcudbright from the 12th century. John Balliol was in possession of the ancient castle at Castledykes in the late 13th century and Edward I of England is said to have stayed here in 1300 during his war against Scotland. In 1455 Kirkcudbright became a royal burgh . About a century later, the magistrates of the town obtained permission from Queen Mary to use part of

798-514: 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

855-496: The Kirkcudbright Artists' Colony . Also among those who moved here from Glasgow were Edward Hornel , George Henry and Jessie M. King . Later another small group of Glasgow-trained artists built their studios across the river at The Stell, including John Charles Lamont and Robert Sivell . Landscape painter Charles Oppenheimer moved to Kirkcudbright in 1908. He is given credit along with artist Dorothy Nesbitt for protecting

912-736: The Tour of Britain 2019 ended in Kirkcudbright on 7 September. The winner was Dutchman Dylan Groenewegen . Jougs The jougs was an iron collar fastened by a short chain to a wall, often of the parish church, or to a tree or mercat cross . The collar was placed round the offender's neck and fastened by a padlock . Time spent in the jougs was intended to shame an offender publicly. Jougs were used for ecclesiastical as well as civil offences. Some surviving examples can still be seen in their original locations in Scottish towns and villages. Jougs may be

969-420: The 'old wife of Bogha', was imprisoned in the tolbooth from 1696 to 1698, accused of bewitching animals. The harsh conditions during her incarceration eventually led her to wish to die, and she confessed to the crimes; she was executed and burned on 24 August 1698. By 1735, lawmakers had come around to the idea that the practice of witchcraft, as traditionally understood, was not a real-world possibility. As such,

1026-400: The 1990s, most of the internal partitions were modern, probably due to rearrangements due to frequent changes in the building's use in the 19th and 20th centuries. It is now used as an art gallery and visitor centre: most of the upper part of the building is gallery space, with a small reception area and a gift shop and café on the ground floor. At least two buildings served as the tolbooth for

1083-468: The Harbour Cottage (art) Gallery from demolition in 1956. Kirkcudbright became known as "the artists' town". Other artists include: Local TV coverage is provided by BBC Reporting Scotland on BBC One & ITV News Lookaround on ITV1 . Radio stations that broadcast the town are BBC Radio Scotland on 93.1 FM and Greatest Hits Radio Dumfries & Galloway on 103.0 FM. The town is served by

1140-515: The High Street. It is also a centre in which many artists open their studios during Spring Fling Open Studios . The Kirkcudbright Arts & Crafts Trail takes place every summer. This four-day event, finishing on the first Monday in August, allows visitors to see artists' studios and visit places that are normally off-limits to visitors. Galleries in Kirkcudbright include Kirkcudbright Galleries, in

1197-451: The Nith valley has jougs attached to the wall just outside the entrance to the old gaol. The jougs at Sorn Kirk were stolen in the 1930s, but located and returned. Cuthbertson refers to the jougs as "symbols of the session's power against gossips and evil-doers". The jougs at Kilallan Kirk near Kilmacolm were stolen and by chance retrieved and donated to the local museum. A story is told of

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1254-542: The Polish artist Jerzy Faczynski (1917–1994) and a set of four paintings by Vivien K. Chapman depicting The Passion of Christ. The Kirkcudbright Railway opened in 1864 but the railway line and station closed in 1965. Kirkcudbright Town Hall was designed by architects Peddie and Kinnear . It was completed in 1879 and is a Category B listed building. It has since been converted into the Kirkcudbright Galleries,

1311-513: The United States Navy, who was born in Kirkbean . The Tolbooth was superseded as the county's main administrative building by a new courthouse at 85 High Street, built in 1788 and rebuilt in 1868, which then served as the meeting place of Kirkcudbrightshire County Council from its creation in 1890 until 1952 when the council moved its meeting place to County Buildings . The Johnston School

1368-664: The artistic community of Kirkcudbright. In 1975, the book was made into a BBC TV drama series shot in the town, with Ian Carmichael playing the lead role of Lord Peter Wimsey . The town also provided locations for the cult 1973 horror film The Wicker Man . Robert Urquhart starred in a 1980 BBC adaptation of Ibsen 's An Enemy of the People , shot on location in Kirkcudbright. Matt McGinn wrote and recorded "The Wee Kirkcudbright Centipede" which has also been covered by other singers including Alistair McDonald on disc and on his BBC Scotland show Songs of Scotland , which included

1425-469: The ascent of the horrid stairs, I know not... In the early nineteenth century, the tolbooth had four cells: two for debtors, and two for criminals. Between 1815 and 1816, a new block with seventeen cells was built adjoining the new courthouse at 85 High Street, making the tolbooth redundant as a prison. The new courthouse was itself rebuilt in 1868, and was succeeded by the County Buildings , which became

1482-493: The attack resulted in the death of one of the tolbooth's guards, and John Graham of Claverhouse pursued the attackers. In an engagement at Auchencloy several days afterwards, Graham captured a number of people including William Hunter and Robert Smith, who were taken to the tolbooth and held there until their trial and execution. John Paul Jones , who would go on to become a hero of the American Revolutionary War ,

1539-644: The building), added in the 18th century and blocking a door to the prison at the base of the tower. The town's mercat cross now stands on the landing of the forestair; it has a carved base, a 1.95-metre (6.4 ft) chamfered stone shaft, and a triangular finial carved with the date 1610 and the initials EME. At the base of the forestair is a well, with lead spouts and a bolection moulded frame with an inscription which reads: THIS FOUNT – NOT RICHES – LIFE SUPPLIES, ART GIVES WHAT NATURE HERE DENIES; POSTERITY MUST SURELY BLESS SAINT CUTHBERT'S SONS WHO PURCHAS'D THIS. WATER INTRODUCED 23D MARCH 1763. Attached to

1596-558: The collection. The Tolbooth building is now used as an arts centre. Kirkcudbright has for long been a centre for visual artists and is now known as "the Artists' Town". The main routes into the town include brown tourist signs saying "Artists' Town". Kirkcudbright is home to an artists' collective which has a shop in the town centre, The PA, Professional Artists Collective. Wasps (Workshop & Artists Studio Provision Scotland) occupy two linked townhouses, Canonwalls and Claverhouse, in

1653-564: The convent and nunnery as a parish church. From around 1570, Sir Thomas MacLellan of Bombie, the chief magistrate, received a charter for the site, its grounds and gardens. MacLellan dismantled the church in order to obtain material for his new castle , a very fine house, which was built on the site. After defeat at the Battle of Towton , Henry VI of England crossed the Solway Firth in August 1461 to land at Kirkcudbright in support of Queen Margaret at Linlithgow . The town for some time withstood

1710-417: The councilors were complaining about the condition of the building, and declared their intention to construct a new building that would serve the needs of the town. Funds were raised from local landowners, by giving over a portion of the fines collected by local magistrates to the council, and by selling rights to the booths that would be available in the new building; Sir John Gordon of Lochinvar also provided

1767-600: The first Borough Engineer for Liverpool where he designed and built the first integrated sewerage system in the world in 1848. The school building was rebuilt, retaining the Italianate tower and façade in 1933 by William A MacKinnell, (1871–1940). He was the County Architect for Kirkcudbrightshire and built many schools in the Stewartry. In 2020 the building was refurbished as a Community Activity and Resource Centre. The building

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1824-466: The former Town Hall on St Mary Street, and the Harbour Cottage Gallery. The 1907 novel Little Esson by S. R. Crockett is a romantic mystery involving the artistic community of Kirkcudbright. The title character Archibald Esson is a fictionalised version of William Stewart MacGeorge , Crockett's boyhood friend. The later whodunit Five Red Herrings by Dorothy L. Sayers also involves

1881-506: The house and its contents as a museum of Hornel's life and work. The Stewartry Museum was founded in 1879 and was at first based in the Town Hall until it became too small to house the collections. The collection moved to a purpose-built site. It contains the local and natural history of the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright. Britain's earliest surviving sporting trophy, the Siller Gun, is part of

1938-448: The inscription "SOLI DEO GLORIA MICHAEL BVRGERHVYS ME FECIT ANNO 1646" (Glory to God alone. Michael Burgerhuys made me in the year 1646). The smaller bell in the steeple was made in London in 1841 by Thomas Mears . A third bell, known as 'the toun's litle bell', is displayed within the tolbooth. It measures 34 centimetres (13 in) in height and 44 centimetres (17 in) in diameter, and

1995-525: The local newspapers, Dumfries & Galloway Standard and the Dumfries Courier which publishes on Fridays. T Kirkcudbright is represented in the South of Scotland Football League by St Cuthbert Wanderers FC . It was founded by parishioners of St Cuthbert Catholic Church. The club's best-known former players are Bob McDougall , Billy Halliday and David Mathieson . The first stage from Glasgow of

2052-404: The meeting place for the newly formed Kirkcudbrightshire County Council in 1890. The town council retained ownership of the tolbooth, and the town's mercat cross was moved to the top of the forestair. Over the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the building was put to a number of different purposes, including a coastguard station, offices for a volunteer rifle company and, for a time,

2109-414: The origin of the later slang word "jug", meaning prison . Sir Walter Scott rescued the jougs from Threave Castle in Kirkcudbrightshire and attached them to the castellated gateway he built at Abbotsford House . In Stewarton , East Ayrshire , the jougs were attached to the old bridge that crossed the burn and connected to the drive that ran up to Corsehill House. The Sanquhar Tolbooth Museum in

2166-405: The point of starving having nothing of ther own nor nothing allowed them for ther sustenance", and in the winter of that year Paine died "through cold, hunger [and] other inconveniences of the prison". The other women were found to have been "maliciously misrepresented as guiltie of the most horrid crymes", and were released in the summer of 1672. Elspeth McEwen , from Balmaclellan , also known as

2223-417: The role the buildings played as the centre of that commercial administration. Their most important functions were as a place for councils and courts to convene, for ceremonial civic functions, and as prisons for debtors and criminals. They usually had bells, which were used to mark the start of the working day, of curfew , and of public events, and from the seventeenth century it was obligatory for them to house

2280-430: The royal burgh of Kirkcudbright prior to the construction of the surviving building. The whereabouts of the original medieval tolbooth are uncertain; the site and its building materials were sold by the burgh council a few years after they acquired a former church to replace it in 1570. The church, which stood a short distance to the east of the current building, was converted for use as a tolbooth and maintained, but by 1625

2337-720: The same name, which is held by the Gracefield Arts Centre in Dumfries. The building is believed to have been Walter Scott 's model for the dungeon of Freeport, featured in his novel Guy Mannering . Kirkcudbright Kirkcudbright ( / k ɜːr ˈ k uː b r i / kur- KOO -bree ; Scottish Gaelic : Cille Chùithbeirt ) is a town at the mouth of the River Dee in Dumfries and Galloway , Scotland, southwest of Castle Douglas and Dalbeattie . A former royal burgh , it

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2394-402: The steeple, and the forestair was added in 1742. Further repairs to the roof were needed in the 1740s and 1750s. In 1763, the forestair was modified to accommodate a fresh water pump. By the later eighteenth century the council decided that a larger building was needed, since the tolbooth had no storage space for records, and the council chambers were too small for county meetings and elections; it

2451-422: 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

2508-418: The summer of 1671, five women were accused of casting charms on animals and of attempting to cure children and adults using witchcraft. Bessie Paine, Janet Hewat, Grissall McNae (or Rae), Margaret McGuffok and Margaret Fleming were arrested in Dumfries , bound, and transported to Kirkcudbright to be imprisoned in the "dark dungeon" of the tolbooth. They were held in "a most miserable conditione being alwayes at

2565-510: The tolhouse as a place of incarceration. Kirkcudbright Tolbooth is a large building, somewhat church-like in appearance, at the corner of Kirkcudbright's right-angled High Street. It has a long, three-storey block running roughly east-west, measuring 22.1 metres (73 ft) by 6.6 metres (22 ft), with a square tower at the east end. The main block and the lower portion of the tower, which would originally have been harled , are made of rubble with red sandstone dressings. The upper stages of

2622-406: The tower, which bear a nineteenth-century clockface, are of ashlar , and are surmounted by a corbeled parapet which is drained by stone spouts. There are obelisks on each of the corners of the parapet, and in the centre is a conical stone spire topped by a boat-shaped weathervane . Beneath the tower on the north face of the building is an ashlar forestair (an outside stair at the front of

2679-537: The training area is the Dundrennan Range , a weapons development and testing range. The use of this range for the testing of depleted uranium shells has been controversial. The range also contains a surviving A39 Tortoise heavy assault tank. Broughton House is an 18th-century town house standing on the High Street. It was the home of Scots impressionist artist Edward Atkinson Hornel between 1901 and his death in 1933. The National Trust for Scotland maintain

2736-572: The wall of the tolbooth are two surviving sets of iron jougs , one at the north-west corner of the building about 1.5 metres (4.9 ft) above the level of the street, and one at the top of the forestair. Secured around the neck, these were used to restrain and publicly shame people convicted of misdemeanours . Hanging within the steeple are two bells. The principal bell, cast in the Netherlands in 1646, measures 52 centimetres (20 in) in height and 61 centimetres (24 in) in diameter, and carries

2793-596: Was believed by her community to be a witch, was sentenced to a year's incarceration at the Kirkcudbright Tolbooth for "pretending to exercise witchcraft, sorcery, inchantment, conjuration, &c." The tolbooth was used to imprison a number of Covenanters in the period after the 1660 Restoration of Charles II , when adherence to the Covenant was abandoned by the Church of Scotland and outlawed. John Neilson of Corsock

2850-465: Was cast in Rotterdam. It is inscribed with "QUIRIN DE VISSER ME FECIT 1724" (Quirin[ius] de Visser made me, 1724). There is also a clock, which was installed in 1897; the tower's original clock, of a single-hand design and probably made in the Netherlands prior to 1580, is on display in the nearby Stewartry Museum . The interior features of the building are mostly modern; even before its refurbishment in

2907-464: Was charged in 1770 over the death of a ship's carpenter, Mungo Maxwell. Jones had ordered Maxwell flogged while they were both serving on the brig John . He later died of yellow fever while serving on another ship, the Barcelona Packet , and Maxwell's father complained that the wounds from the flogging had contributed to his death. Jones was arrested and incarcerated at Kirkcudbright Tolbooth. He

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2964-399: Was decided to build a new town house, on the other side of the high street. This was completed in 1788, and the council offices and courthouse were moved over to the new building, but the tolbooth remained in use as a prison. It also continued to be used for some time to host public events; when a memorial stone was being laid to mark the construction of new public buildings in the town in 1878,

3021-530: Was freed on bail , and ultimately acquitted when testimony from the master of the Barcelona Packet indicated that Maxwell had been in good health when he joined its crew. Kirkcudbright Tolbooth has been the subject of paintings by a number of notable artists. Examples include William Hanna Clarke 's painting 'The Tolbooth, Kirkcudbright', which is in the collection of the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum , and William Stewart MacGeorge 's painting of

3078-471: Was held at the tolbooth, having been arrested for allowing ministers loyal to the Covenant to preach in his house. He was fined 2,000 pounds Scots and released, but was later captured at the Battle of Rullion Green and hanged at Edinburgh . In late 1684, during the Killing Time of 1679–1688, a band of over 100 Covenanters mounted a raid on the tolbooth, and successfully freed some of their brethren;

3135-441: Was one of the town's two primary schools, until it was merged with Castledykes Primary School in 2009, the new School called Kirkcudbright Primary School being housed in a new building. The school was endowed with a bequest by Kirkcudbright merchant and shipowner William Johnston (1769–1845) and opened in 1847 as Johnston's Free School. The building was designed by Edinburgh architect James Newlands (1813–1871) who later went on to be

3192-418: Was raised to pay for construction, and work started on the new tower, which by 1644 was ready to receive the bell and clock from the church; the church's bell would shortly afterwards be replaced by the 1646 bell currently hanging in the steeple. In the years that followed, numerous repairs, alterations and extensions were made to the building. Extensive repairs were needed in the 1720s after a fire broke out in

3249-425: Was renovated in the 1990s, and is currently used as a visitor centre and art gallery . In Scottish towns from the medieval period to the nineteenth century, tolbooths were the centre of local government and law enforcement. From the twelfth century, royal burghs were allowed to hold markets and conduct international trade, and to levy tolls and customs on these commercial activities; the word tolbooth derives from

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