Kirkwall Sheriff Court and Former Police Station, Watergate

The Kirkwall Sheriff Court and Former Police Station, located on Watergate, was designed by David Bryce in 1873 and completed in 1877 by John Bryce. This building features two storeys and an attic, designed in an asymmetrical, plain Scots Baronial style, with a former prison, warden's house, and a police station wing attached at the rear. A flat-roofed garage extension on the south side is not considered of special interest.

The main façade facing north is constructed of stugged and coursed sandstone ashlar with polished dressings. It has an advanced entrance bay that is offset to the left of the centre, featuring steps leading up to a moulded doorpiece with a carved panel dated 1877. Above this entrance, there is a corbelled gable head stack. To the right, gabletted windows with rose-finials break the eaves. Notably, three salvaged 16th-century tablets are incorporated into the east and west gable heads, two displaying the arms of Bishop Robert Reid and one with the arms of Bishop Edward Stewart.

Adjoining to the west is the former prison and police office, which includes a conical-roofed stair tower in the re-entrant angle. This two-storey, five-bay block is built of squared and snecked sandstone rubble, featuring chamfered reveals, long and short quoins, and a corniced eaves course. There are stone steps leading to the entrance, with gabletted first-floor windows topped with rose and thistle finials. The south elevation has six bays with horizontal windows that were once used as cells. An enclosed former exercise courtyard is located to the east of this elevation.

The interior of the courthouse, as observed in 2014, includes plain cornicing in the hall and a plastered barrel vaulted ceiling in the courtroom. The courthouse has 4-pane glazing in timber sash and case windows, while the former prison and police offices predominantly feature 12-pane glazing in similar windows. The roofs are covered with grey slate, complete with stone ridges and stone skews, and the building has predominantly cast iron rainwater goods.

Surrounding the property are low rubble boundary walls with a ridged ashlar cope along Palace Road and Watergate Street. The entrance on Palace Road is marked by square-plan ashlar gatepiers topped with pyramidal caps, accompanied by spear-headed cast iron railings.