Elgin Sheriff Court, High Street, Elgin

Elgin Sheriff Court, designed by A and W Reid, was built between 1864 and 1866 and extended at the rear in 1993. This two-storey, five-bay classical courthouse is situated on a corner site and features a slightly advanced three-bay center topped with a panelled parapet. The ground floor is made of channelled ashlar, while the upper floor is finished in polished ashlar. The rear is constructed from squared and snecked rubble with ashlar dressings. The building has base and band courses, a mutuled eaves cornice, and vermiculated quoins on the first floor.

The entrance consists of recessed two-leaf panelled timber doors, accessed by a shallow flight of steps. The first-floor windows are adorned with a blind balustrade and a bracketed cornice. The advanced center of the first floor is flanked by paired Ionic pilasters, with the central window surrounded by paired and engaged Ionic columns. The courtroom windows are round-arched and feature keystones. The Glover Street elevation includes a shorter two-storey, three-bay range to the left, which is slightly set back from the two-bay return of the front block, along with a single-storey, four-bay range that was expanded with two additional bays around 1993 to create a holding cell block.

The windows are fitted with 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case frames, and the building has corniced wallhead stacks with octagonal cans, topped with a piended platform slate roof.

The interior, as seen in 2014, is organized around a west-facing ground floor courtroom. Courtroom 1 features a panelled timber judge's bench, witness box, jury box, dock, and well, with timber boarding up to dado height. There is a bracketed canopy over the bench with a decorative pediment, raked public seating, and hoodmouldings with a flower motif. The room has a mutuled cornice and a compartmented plaster ceiling with an inset ceiling rose. Panelled timber doors with architraves and panelled jambs lead to the jury room and judge's chambers, both of which have deep combed cornices. Courtroom 2, located to the east, has replacement fixtures and fittings. A dog leg staircase to the east of the entrance features composite square and barley sugar balusters with a timber handrail. There is also a barrel vaulted and ribbed corridor running from north to south, with some window shutters and panelled timber doors.