Lerwick Sheriff Court

Lerwick Sheriff Court is a complex of buildings constructed between 1874 and 1875, designed by David Rhind of Edinburgh. The main part of the complex consists of county buildings to the south, with a taller court house at the rear to the north, and a police station and former prison extending further north. A more recent two-storey concrete rendered extension to the north is not considered to be of special architectural interest.

The building occupies a prominent position within its own grounds in Lerwick. It is built with stugged, squared, and snecked sandstone ashlar walls, accented by contrasting droved ashlar dressings and details. Features include base courses, curved corners, chamfered arrises, and shallow pointed-arched lintels over the windows, with a few bipartite openings.

The south-facing entrance elevation has an asymmetrical four-bay design, with bays that project forward. A six-panel, two-leaf timber entrance door is set beneath a stepped hoodmould that incorporates a datestone.

Most windows have four panes and are set in timber sash and case frames. The former prison has smaller cell windows. The roof is covered in grey slates, with decorative brattishing to the court house and cast iron rainwater goods, some dated 1875. Other external details include apex and wallhead coped chimney stacks, skewputts, and iron lamp bracket oversailing the south gate.

The interior of the court house, viewed in 2014, contains a marble slab chimneypiece, four-panel doors, panelled shutters, and a coved plaster ceiling in the county hall. The county clerk’s office has a boarded ceiling. A stone staircase features cast iron balusters and a timber handrail. The courtroom retains many original fittings, including a curved bench, a witness box, a jury box, a dock with metal railings, a public bench, and a press bench, all constructed from panelled pine. There is also vertically-boarded timber wainscoting, panelled shutters, architraved doors, and a coved and coffered ceiling. The former prison has a stone stair with plain balusters and a timber handrail.

Low, saddleback coped and stepped boundary walls, topped with iron railings, run along the south and east sides. Square gatepiers have pyramidal caps. To the north and east, a high wall of random rubble encloses the former prison yard.