Stornoway Sheriff Court, Lewis Street

Stornoway Sheriff Court, located on Lewis Street, is a building designed by Thomas Brown in 1843, originally serving as a jail with a walled courtyard. It was later remodelled and extended by Andrew Maitland in 1870, transforming it into a two-storey, multi-gabled, L-plan county building and courthouse in the Tudor style. The exterior features stugged ashlar coursers with polished dressings, corbelled-out wallhead stacks topped with tall octagonal flues, and moulded skews, with a belfry positioned at the far-right.

At the rear, the former jail block has high horizontal window openings, some of which are blocked, shouldered skews, and several multi-pane timber windows. The building predominantly has 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows, a grey slate roof, and cast iron rainwater goods.

The interior, which was refurbished after a fire in 1989, includes a courtroom that was remodelled between 1993 and 1996. Notable surviving features are the decorative cast iron banister and curving timber handrail, which is scrolled at the newel post, in the principal staircase. The ground floor rooms have vaulted ceilings, and the former jail block retains studded cell doors. The hall and courtroom feature plain cornicing.

A segmental archway leads from the red sandstone rubble boundary wall adjoining the south elevation to a high, enclosed rubble-walled courtyard at the rear. The street-facing boundary is marked by a low rubble wall with coping stones and cast-iron railings, complemented by square-plan ashlar gatepiers topped with ball finials.