Tolbooth, Main Street, West Wemyss is a Grade B listed building in the Fife local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 11 December 1972. Tolbooth. 3 related planning applications.

Tolbooth, Main Street, West Wemyss

WRENN ID
endless-column-smoke
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Fife
Constituency
Glenrothes and Mid Fife MP: Richard Baker (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
11 December 1972
Type
Tolbooth
Address
Tolbooth, Main Street, West Wemyss, KY1 4SN
OS grid reference
NT 325 946
Coordinates
56.13984, -3.08622
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

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

Description

The Tolbooth on Main Street in West Wemyss is likely from the late 17th century. It is a two-storey, three-bay structure featuring a narrow clock tower and pend, built in a regular terrace style. The building is constructed from harled rubble with stone margins on the first floor.

On the northwest elevation facing Main Street, the tower projects from the center bay, with a broad segmentally-arched pend to the right and a forestair to the left of center at ground level. The outer bays have windows on the first floor.

The tower is a five-stage, square-plan structure. The northwest elevation has a chamfered angle on the right and a forestair on the left. At the first stage, there are two carved panels high up; the lower panel displays the arms and initials of David, 2nd Earl of Wemyss (1610-1679), while the upper panel features a coronet and an inscription that is said to have read: "THIS FABRIC WAS BUILT BY EARL DAVID / WEMYSS AND TOWN / FOR THE CRIBBING OF VICE AND SERVICE TO / CROWN." There is a boarded timber door on the return to the left. The second stage of the tower has an arrowslit on the northwest side, and the third stage features arrowslits on each elevation. The fourth stage displays a clock face on each elevation, while the fifth stage mirrors the third but has wider openings that lead to a lead/copper splay-foot spire topped with a swan weathervane.

The building has blinded windows, clay pantiles, and harled chimneystacks with cans and ashlar-coped skews.

Inside, the second floor is now a single room, which was formerly partitioned, and features an 18th-century-style decorated plaster ceiling. There are two fireplaces on the east side, and the roof has been rebuilt.

Local climate

Tolbooth, Main Street, West Wemyss receives an average of 910 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 68% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 62% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 32 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 59% of listed buildings. Of these, 17 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 — 3 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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  5. 30 And 32 Main Street, West Wemyss Grade B 32 m
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