Sheriff Court, Castlehill

David Cousin of Edinburgh, 1869-71; single storey wing to left, 1903. 2-storey, 3-bay, French Gothic court house with 3-storey tower projecting to centre with corbelled-out belfry and flanked by single storey wings. 2-storey wing projecting to rear with single storey courtroom wing beyond forming approximate T-plan. Rough-faced ashlar to principal and northeast elevations, squared and snecked ashlar elsewhere with droved dressings. Base course, string course below first floor cills, eaves course. Crowstepped gables. Entrance deeply set in round arched moulded opening. Tower flanked by triparite windows at ground floor and 4-light mullioned and transomed first floor window breaking eaves with triangular and finials dormerhead. Stop-chamfered window reveals.

Plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Grey slate pitched roofs with modern ventilators to main building and wings. Piended roof to courtroom with near-vertical end pitches. Timber louvers to belfry. Cast iron profiled gutters and downpipes, with hoppers to principal front. Coped apex stacks with round cans at gables.

The interior, seen in 2014, has a stone stair with cast iron barley-twist bannisters and timber handrail. The principal courtroom (refitted after a fire in 1989) has a vaulted ceiling with ribbed plasterwork and decorative cornice. Pitch-pine doors with stop-chamfered panelling.

Low ashlar coped boundary wall (railings removed) to right of entrance door, stepping downhill and curving round to northeast elevation, terminated by bull-faced square pier with pyramidal droved ashlar cap. Random rubble wall enclosing rear of buildings, intersecting with chamfered corner of rear wing, doorway with vertically boarded door and section of semi-circular cope above.