Old Tolbooth of Stonehaven

Quick facts

Date

Late sixteenth century; north wing added in the seventeenth century; restored 1963; museum works and community transfer completed 2026

Builder / patron

Original mason unrecorded; probably associated with George Keith, fifth Earl Marischal

Type

Crowstepped harbour store converted to tolbooth, courthouse and prison

Designation

Listed building, Category A (LB41655)

OS grid reference

NO 87804 85521

Current use

Ground-floor community museum with separate restaurant premises above

A harbour building made for hard use

The Old Tolbooth is a compact two-storey, L-plan building of local sandstone and conglomerate rubble. Crowstepped gables, beaked skewputts, graded slate roofs and a dominant wallhead stack give it the silhouette of a small Scots burgh building rather than a purpose-designed civic palace. Ashlar dressings are used sparingly around chamfered openings.

The principal elevations record repeated alteration. A broad loading door at first-floor level is now glazed and protected by a modern iron balustrade. Blocked slits, irregular windows and later doorways reveal changing needs. On the west side, an external forestair rises to the former courthouse entrance. A semicircular rubble wall and iron gate enclose the eastern yard, recalling the controlled exercise area associated with the prison.

From store to county court

Historic Environment Scotland treats the earliest function cautiously. The building was probably erected in the late sixteenth century as a store during work at nearby Dunnottar Castle, perhaps for George Keith, fifth Earl Marischal. A north wing followed in the seventeenth century. The attribution and original store function are plausible rather than proved with the certainty of the later civic use.

After Stonehaven became the county town in 1600, the building served as tolbooth, courthouse and prison. Court business occupied the first floor, while prisoners were held below and used the enclosed yard. This vertical separation survives in the external stair and distinct modern uses of the two floors.

The imprisoned clergy

In the winter of 1748–1749, three Episcopal clergy from Stonehaven, Muchalls and Drumlithie were imprisoned here for refusing to pray for George II and for conducting services for congregations larger than the law allowed. A tradition records children being brought in fishing creels for baptism through a barred window. Historic Environment Scotland includes the episode in the designation account, while also noting that its imagery was popularised later by the Victorian painter George Washington Brownlow. St James the Great Episcopal Church preserves the story in stained glass.

Storage, rescue and museum use

Judicial functions moved to new County Buildings in Dunnottar Avenue in 1767. The old building then returned to humbler storage uses, including grain, coal and lime, and eventually deteriorated. A major restoration in 1963 recovered it for public use. Further work in 1975 placed a museum upstairs.

Today the arrangement is different: the Stonehaven Tolbooth Association operates the museum on the ground floor, while a separate restaurant occupies the upper floor. Visitors should not assume that museum admission gives access to the former courtroom or restaurant areas.

A new community chapter in 2026

The museum’s official account records a major change in 2026. After a Community Asset Transfer process, the Association and Aberdeenshire Council signed documents on 25 March transferring the ground floor and courtyards to the Association. Contractors completed work at the end of March, including measures required to separate the museum and restaurant uses, and volunteers cleaned and refreshed the displays before the museum reopened on 15 April.

The transfer gives the volunteer organisation a permanent base for preserving and interpreting Stonehaven’s history while retaining the mixed use of the listed building.

Current opening and access

The museum advertises free admission and welcomes visitors from 1.30pm to 4.30pm on Monday and Wednesday through Sunday; it is closed on Tuesday. These are volunteer-led opening arrangements and should be checked on the museum website before a special journey. The upper restaurant follows its own access and trading arrangements. Harbour edges, historic surfaces, steps and the external forestair require care, and the enclosed courtyard should be entered only when the museum makes it available.

Collections and interpretation

Displays focus on the town and harbour, domestic and working life, and the building’s prison history. The museum highlights an original cell door, the seven-hole Inverbervie stocks and a weighted prison crank. These objects make the punitive history tangible, but the strongest exhibit remains the building itself: thick rubble walls, blocked openings, flagstone floors and the relationship between ground-floor confinement and the stair to the court above.

Why it matters

As Stonehaven’s oldest surviving building, the Tolbooth links the harbour economy, Earl Marischal’s local power, county administration, religious conflict, imprisonment and modern community stewardship. Its Category A interest lies in that unusually dense history as well as its surviving crowstepped fabric and courtyard.

What to notice

• The local sandstone and conglomerate rubble, with restrained ashlar dressings.
• Crowstepped gables, beaked skewputts and the large wallhead chimney.
• The forestair leading towards the former first-floor courtroom.
• Blocked slits and altered loading openings that reveal successive uses.
• The curved courtyard wall and iron gate associated with the prison yard.
• Surviving rubble and flagstone floors in the north wing.

Timeline

1. Late sixteenth century The original rectangular range was probably built as a harbour store.
2. 1600 Stonehaven’s county role brought civic, court and prison functions to the building.
3. Seventeenth century The north wing was added.
4. 1748–1749 Three Episcopal clergy were imprisoned here.
5. 1767 Court and prison business moved to new County Buildings.
6. 1963 Major restoration rescued the deteriorated structure.
7. 1975 Further work created museum accommodation upstairs.
8. 25 March–15 April 2026 Community transfer and building works were completed, followed by the refreshed museum reopening.

What remains uncertain

The association with George Keith and the building’s first use as a Dunnottar-related store remain probable rather than securely documented. The fishing-creel baptisms belong to a strong historical tradition linked to a documented imprisonment episode, but later art helped shape the familiar telling. The current museum occupies only the ground floor: older accounts describing an upstairs museum should not be treated as the present layout.

Sources & further reading

• Historic Environment Scotland: Old Tolbooth of Stonehaven, LB41655 — Designation, architecture, chronology, court and prison history, restoration and significance.
• Stonehaven Tolbooth Museum — Current ownership and operation, 2026 reopening, admission, opening hours, collections and separation from the upstairs restaurant.