Wick Sheriff Court

Wick Sheriff Court is an Italianate courthouse built between 1862 and 1866 by David Rhind. It is a two-storey building with an attic and a roughly rectangular plan, featuring three bays. A large, flat-roofed extension added in the late 20th century is not considered of special interest. The exterior is made of tooled ashlar stone with polished ashlar dressings. The central entrance has a round arched door set in a paired pilastered doorpiece, flanked by round arched windows that are also pilastered. The corners of the building have channelled pilasters, and there is a band course between the ground and first floors. The first floor has bipartite round arched windows with a balustrade, colonnettes, and rosettes in the spandrels. The cornice is dentilled and modillioned, featuring lion head masks. A blind arcaded parapet with tall end piers supports ball finials, and there are two aediculed dormers flanking a pilastered central tower, which has one window and a mansard roof with cresting. The roof is slate.

Inside, as seen in 2014, the ground floor contains the court and public offices, while the first floor features a principal courtroom that faces south. Access to the courtroom is via a dog-leg cantilever stone stair with decorative barley sugar iron balusters and a timber handrail. The stair hall is illuminated by a lantern roof light set in a coffered ceiling. The principal courtroom has a tripartite cupola light set in an elaborate coffered ceiling adorned with moulded cornicing, decorative motifs, scrolled corbels, and ornate roses. It includes public timber pew seating and a timber panelled sheriff's bench with a coat of arms above. Other secondary rooms, offices, and passages also feature decorative cornicing, roses, panelled doors, and several fireplaces, many of which are now boarded up, with marble surrounds.