Kirkcudbright Sheriff Court

David Rhind, 1868 with circa 1994 alterations to upgrade court facilities. Castellated court house block to street, returning to east and incorporating earlier 1815 prison tower and police station to rear. 2-storey, 4-bay with off-centre 3-stage entrance tower to High Street. Squared granite with sandstone dressings. Doorway with narrow side lights, and stepped hoodmoulded oriel window above, all under tower rising through continuous castellated parapet. Ground floor windows with hoodmoulds. Square angle turret to right corner with slit windows to each stage. Asymmetrical side elevations with entrance at first bay to east elevation. Extensive cell block at rear, incorporating 1815 building, comprising 2 towers of 4 and 6 stages, each with an octagonal stair turret and 3-storey block. 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows. Grey slated roof. Wallhead stacks. Cast iron downpipes. Iron railings and pyramidal capped gate piers.

The interior, seen in 2014, is arranged with the court and public offices on ground floor with an east facing main courtroom on the first floor accessed from a dog-legged staircase with decorative barley twist iron balusters and timber handrail. Much of the 1868 plan remains. The principal courtroom has 6-panel doors and a high, coffered ceiling with moulded and decorative cornicing, flower motifs, scrolled corbels and ornate roses. It also includes raked public timber seating and timber judge's bench with a timber sounding board above. Secondary rooms, offices and passages have decorative cornicing and panelled doors, and there are a number of fireplaces (many now boarded up). The former 1815 prison block to rear has been converted to offices and retains its barrel vaulted cells and police areas at the second floor. There is a small exercise area on the roof accessed from a timber stair in the custody area. Former suite of Fiscal's offices and police station on ground floor to the east is a public library, with its own entrance to the east (2014).