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Summary

Description

David Cousin of Edinburgh, 1869-71; single storey wing to left, 1903. 2-storey, 3-bay, French Gothic court house with 3-storey tower projecting to centre with corbelled-out belfry and flanked by single storey wings. 2-storey wing projecting to rear with single storey courtroom wing beyond forming approximate T-plan. Rough-faced ashlar to principal and northeast elevations, squared and snecked ashlar elsewhere with droved dressings. Base course, string course below first floor cills, eaves course. Crowstepped gables. Entrance deeply set in round arched moulded opening. Tower flanked by triparite windows at ground floor and 4-light mullioned and transomed first floor window breaking eaves with triangular and finials dormerhead. Stop-chamfered window reveals.

Plate glass in timber sash and case windows. Grey slate pitched roofs with modern ventilators to main building and wings. Piended roof to courtroom with near-vertical end pitches. Timber louvers to belfry. Cast iron profiled gutters and downpipes, with hoppers to principal front. Coped apex stacks with round cans at gables.

The interior, seen in 2014, has a stone stair with cast iron barley-twist bannisters and timber handrail. The principal courtroom (refitted after a fire in 1989) has a vaulted ceiling with ribbed plasterwork and decorative cornice. Pitch-pine doors with stop-chamfered panelling.

Low ashlar coped boundary wall (railings removed) to right of entrance door, stepping downhill and curving round to northeast elevation, terminated by bull-faced square pier with pyramidal droved ashlar cap. Random rubble wall enclosing rear of buildings, intersecting with chamfered corner of rear wing, doorway with vertically boarded door and section of semi-circular cope above.

Statement of Special Interest

Campbeltown Sheriff Court is a good example of burgh civic architecture. Designed by David Cousin in the 1860s, it is a relatively unusual adaptation of the Franco-Gothic architectural style which became popular in the mid-19th century for country house design but was less commonly used for public buildings. The court house is a focal point of the Castlehill area of Campbeltown, located on high ground beside the former Castlehill Church.

Campbeltown Sheriff Court was built in 1869-71 as a court and municipal building for the town. The main contractor was local builder and architect, Robert Weir. The Argyllshire Herald noted that the new court house made a substantial improvement to the Castlehill area, making it "one of the most beautiful districts of the burgh". On 14th January 1903, the Standing Joint Committee of The Argyll County Council applied for permission to build the small wing extension to the south.

The Campbeltown Town Hall had served as a court house and prison from 1760. Friction between Sheriff Bruce and the Town Council in 1852 led to proposals to convert old buildings in Bolgam Street (see separate listing) into a court house but further disagreement in 1868 between the Town Council and the county authority about the rent of the Bolgam Street premises prompted the Commissioners to build the new court house on Castlehill. The jury room outshot to the south of the courtroom appears to be a slightly later 19th century addition, and is shown on the 2nd Edition Ordnance Survey map, surveyed in 1898. The principal courtroom was largely refitted following a fire in 1989. A stair outshot in a similar rough-faced ashlar to the principal block was added to the rear in the late 20th century to allow access to the court from the lower ground at the rear of the building.

David Cousin worked as city architect for Edinburgh, specialising in public architectural commissions. He previously built the poorhouse in Tobermory, the Argyll and Bute Hospital in Lochgilphead and the Free High Church in Oban.

The development of the court house as a building type in Scotland follows the history of the Scottish legal system and wider government reforms. The majority of purpose-built court houses were constructed in the 19th century as by this time there was an increase in the separation of civic, administrative and penal functions into separate civic and institutional buildings, and the resultant surge of public building was promoted by new institutional bodies. The introduction of the Sheriff Court Houses (Scotland) Act of 1860 gave a major impetus to the increase and improvement of court accommodation and the provision of central funding was followed by the most active period of sheriff court house construction in the history of the Scottish legal system, and many new court houses were built or reworked after this date.

Court houses constructed after 1860 generally had a solely legal purpose and did not incorporate a prison, other than temporary holding cells. The courts were designed in a variety of architectural styles but often relied heavily on Scots Baronial features to reference the fortified Scottish building tradition. Newly constructed court buildings in the second half of the 19th century dispensed with large public spaces such as county halls and instead provided bespoke office accommodation for the sheriff, judge and clerks, and accommodated the numerous types of court and holding cells.

Category changed from B to C, statutory address and listed building record revised as part of the Scottish Courts Listing Review 2014-15. Previously listed as 'Castlehill, Sheriff Court House With Boundary Wall'.

References

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