#tolbooth

Bon Soir 💙🆕️🎙🎸

Tom Smith 🎶 Leave

Live at Tolbooth, Stirling

While Dornoch is indeed a small town in the Highlands of Scotland, it was once the judicial centre of most of the county of Sutherland. As such, Dornoch was where the court and jail of the area was situated.

But originally, there was no "jail", as we know it today, in Dornoch. There was the Tolbooth. In Scotland, the tolbooth was initially a booth in the marketplace where tolls were collected, for example, fines for crimes or misdemeanors. Hence the name tolbooth, because it was a toll booth. Later on, it develops into what would essentially be a small prisons, with equally small courts attached, often placed in the middle of town. Dornoch's old tolbooth stood near where the markets were once held, on the High street, near where the Mercat (market) Cross stands.

Conditions would have been terrible in the tolbooth. The cells were cramped and dark, with no access to water. There was no seperation between criminals, or between men women and children (yes child could be put in prison at this time).

In the early 1800's, the tolbooth would be demolished as part of an improvement plan for the town centre. The prisoners would be temporarily housed in Dornoch Castle whilst a new court and jail would be built on the opposite side of the Cathedral grounds.

The new jail and courthouse were finished in 1840, after 2 years of construction. The new and improved jail would have 11 cell regular cell, 2 rooms for civil prisoners(debtors), an infirmary, an exercise space and accommodation for the jail keeper. Criminals were now separated by gender and by crime. Some debtors were allowed to conduct business from their cells to help them pay off their debts.

Of course, despite being a shiny new jail, which was of much higher quality of living for the prisoners, the whole point of prison was punishment. Many would find themselves facing various forms of hard labour during their stay. The Crank was regularly used to keep prisoners working throughout the day. The crank was a barrel filled with sand. Inside would be 3 scoops that were attached to a crank handle on the outside. Prisoners would spend hours and hours, turning this crank, pushing the scoops through the sand, which created massive resistance. It is said that if prison officers didn't like a particular prisoner, they would tighten the screws on the crank, just to make it that bit harder to turn the handle.

Punishments for badly behaved prisoners included a reduction in rations, solitary confinement, being restrained in irons, or being kept in the dark for long periods of time.

There was a difference in how the genders were treated in their time in the jail. A great example of this is in what they were fed. Men tended to be fed worse food, such as oat gruel. Women and children were given meat and dairy to supplement their diets.

The jail only functioned as a working prison for about 30 years before it was shut down. The local government decided it was not worth the money to keep it running, with so few prisoners.

Today, Dornoch Jail is now a shop that sells fine Scottish clothes and jewellery from the very same cells that once held the criminals of Sutherland.

Daytrip to Edinburgh

Along the Royal Mile to Greyfriars, the National Museum of Scotland (with a great roof terrace view) and finishing off at the Meadows. 

Tolbooth, Royal Mile, Edinburgh, March 2009,  Scotland