Boundary Walls and Railings Banff Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, Low Street Banff is a Grade B listed building in the Aberdeenshire local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 22 February 1972. 2 related planning applications.

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

WRENN ID
crooked-solder-linden
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Aberdeenshire
Constituency
Aberdeenshire North and Moray East MP: Seamus Logan (SNP)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
22 February 1972
Address
Boundary Walls and Railings Banff Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, Low Street Banff, AB45 1AU
OS grid reference
NJ 689 638
Coordinates
57.6631, -2.52159
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: related consents · flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

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.

Local climate

Boundary Walls and Railings Banff Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, Low Street Banff receives an average of 950 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 73% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 55% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 18 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 82% of listed buildings. Of these, 14 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • No EPC on record for this property
  • No sale records on file
  • Related listed building consents — 2 applications
  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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Nearby listed buildings

  1. Banff Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, Low Street, Banff, Including Boundary Walls and Railings Grade B 15 m
  2. 8 Low Street, Banff Grade A 17 m
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  4. Fife Arms Hotel, 10 Low Street, Banff Grade A 28 m
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  6. 2 Low Street, Banff Grade B 31 m
  7. 6 Low Street, Banff Grade C 34 m
  8. 3, 5, 7 Low Street, Banff Grade B 37 m
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  10. Fife Arms Hotel, 12 Low Street, Banff Grade A 37 m