Banff Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, Low Street, Banff, Including Boundary Walls and Railings

The Banff Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, designed by James Matthews between 1868 and 1871, is a two-storey, seven-bay building with a five-bay return in a Renaissance palazzo style. The central three bays are slightly advanced and feature a balustraded portico supported by paired Corinthian columns. The building has a rectangular U-shaped plan, with the void of the U filled by a double-height courtroom. It is constructed from tooled ashlar stone with polished ashlar dressings on the principal (east) and south elevations, and it includes channelled quoins, a base course, and a string course between the ground and first floors. A deep moulded and modillioned cornice runs below the balustraded parapet, and there are wide, panelled stacks at the centre. The ground floor features segmental-headed keystoned windows with moulded jambs, while the first floor has keystoned round-headed windows linked by a decorative bandcourse with a floral motif. The north and rear elevations are harled with plain ashlar dressings.

The roof is pitched with grey slates and has a piended roof over the courtroom. The wallhead is plain and blocked, with a corniced wallhead stack and modillioned corniced stacks on the side and rear elevations.

Inside, as seen in 2014, the layout includes a south-facing ground floor courtroom and a north-facing council chamber on the first floor. A dog-leg staircase to the north features decorative cast iron balusters. The courtroom is fitted with panelled timber features, including a witness box with a curved sounding board, and tall round-arched niches flanking the judge's bench. The ceiling is coombed and coffered with a modillioned cornice, and there is an iron fireplace with a marble mantelpiece in the judge's chambers. The doors are predominantly panelled with moulded architraves. The council chamber has been refurbished but retains panelled timber doors in moulded architraves, including one with a semicircular fanlight, and a moulded cornice.

The property is enclosed by ashlar boundary walls topped with copes and cast iron railings featuring fleur-de-lys decoration.