Railings at Wigtown Town Hall (Former Wigtown Sheriff Court), The Square, Wigtown

Wigtown Town Hall, formerly Wigtown Sheriff Court, was designed by Thomas Brown II in 1862-3, incorporating elements from a preceding building on the same site dating to 1756. This is a two-storey, eight-bay, rectangular former court house and county hall, constructed in polished, squared and snecked red sandstone with contrasting cream sandstone dressings. The building features a tower on the north elevation and a large mansard attic.

The exterior is marked by a string course between the ground and first floor, another linking the hoodmolds over the windows, and a moulded eaves course. Ground floor windows are bi or tripartite with stone mullions, each featuring carved shields above. First floor windows are two-light pointed arches with cusped rose lights in the archheads. Tall mansard slate roofs, lead finials at the corners, and wallhead chimney stacks with tall octagonal cans are prominent on the north and south elevations. A pair of small, louvered gabled ventilators are visible on the front roof pitch.

The principal (west) elevation is symmetrical, with a central tripartite porch featuring paired buttresses, consoles supporting a balustraded first-floor balcony, and two heraldic stone lions. The entrance has a moulded pointed-arch surround with the Wigtown burgh arms carved in the tympanum, above a shouldered doorway with double-leaf panelled doors. All windows are sash and case, with a multi-pane glazing pattern of three panes to each ground floor light, and four to the first-floor lights.

The north elevation features a three-bay, projecting three-stage tower. A door to the left incorporates arms from the 1756 building. String courses separate the tower stages, with single lights at ground and first levels. The second stage displays clock faces within louvered three-light openings and a corbelled ashlar balcony. The eaves course is accentuated by a deep carved corbelled cornice and decorative dragon gargoyles at the corners. The tower’s mansard roof includes lucarnes and brattishing, and a pair of small, louvered gabled ventilators.

Internally, the upper county hall (former courtroom) retains timber panelling to dado height, a stage, and a coombed ceiling with rib and pendant plasterwork. This plasterwork design is repeated throughout other rooms, corridors, and the stairwell. Doorways and window openings are pointed arches. A central cantilevered stone stair has a barley twist balustrade and a glazed skylight. A barrel-vaulted cell at ground floor level, positioned to the right of the north entrance, survives as a remnant of the 1756 building.

The front and side elevations are bordered by painted metal railings on low stone walls with chamfered angles. A pair of lamp standards, with decorative twisted barley poles on octagonal bases, flank the entrance to the building.