Dingwall Sheriff Court

File:Loch Maree Poisoning Tragedy inquiry Sept. 1922.jpg at Dingwall Sheriff Court, September 1922]]

The Ross and Cromarty Commissioners of Supply served as the main administrative body for the county from 1667 until 1890 when the county council was created and took over most of the commissioners' functions. In the early 19th century, the commissioners met at 63–64 High Street but, in the early 1840s, they decided that a bespoke courthouse should be commissioned. The site they chose had been formed by filling in an artificial pit with hard rubble.{{cite web|url= https://www.rossandcromartyheritage.org/home/mid-ross-communities/dingwall/dingwall-places/dingwall-public-buildings/dingwall-sheriff-court/ |title=Dingwall Sheriff Court|publisher=Ross and Cromarty Heritage Society|access-date=20 December 2022}}

The new building was designed by Thomas Brown II in the Gothic Revival style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1845.{{cite web|url=https://librarylink.highland.gov.uk/LLFiles/292122/full_292122.pdf |title= Dingwall Conservation Area: Conservation Area Character Appraisal|page=31|publisher=The Highland Council|date=1 July 2010| access-date=18 December 2022}} The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage of nine bays facing onto Ferry Road. The central section of three bays, which was projected forward, featured an arched doorway with a hood mould flanked by lancet windows on the ground floor, a prominent tripartite window on the first floor and another lancet window in the gable above. The outer bays of the central section were fenestrated by oriel windows on both floors and there were gables above. The left-hand section of five bays featured castellated towers at either end, while the right-hand section of just one bay also took the form of a castellated tower. A prison block was erected to the rear of the courthouse. Internally, the principal room was the main courtroom on the first floor.

A three-bay police station, designed by Andrew Maitland, was erected to the right of the courthouse in 1865. Following the implementation of the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1889, which established county councils in every county, Ross and Cromarty County Council established its offices in the building.{{cite book |last=Shennan |first=Hay |title=Boundaries of Counties and Parishes in Scotland: as settled by the Boundary Commissioners under the Local Government (Scotland) Act, 1889 |year=1892 |publisher=William Green & Sons |location=Edinburgh |url=https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_meygAAAAMAAJ/page/n5 |via=Internet Archive}} The building was the venue for the inquiry into the deaths of the eight people who died as a result of the Loch Maree Hotel botulism poisoning in 1922.{{cite web|url=https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/first-botulism-case|title=The Lethal Lunch That Shook Scotland|last=McThenia|first=Tal|date=15 November 2018|website=Atlas Obscura|access-date=19 November 2018}}

The county council relocated to the Old Academy Buildings in Tulloch Street in the 1930s{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=KV-1AAAAIAAJ |title=Planning and Construction |volume =5 |year=1948 |page=459|publisher=Todd Reference Books|quote=County Architect's Department, Old Academy, Tulloch Street, Dingwall, Ross-shire}} and the police service vacated the complex when they moved to a modern police station to the west of County Buildings in 1972.{{cite news|url= http://www.scottisharchitects.org.uk/building_full.php?id=407277 |title=Police Station|publisher=Dictionary of Scottish Architects| access-date=18 December 2022}} The Ferry Road building continued to accommodate the sheriff court until its closure in January 2015,{{cite news|url= https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/474550/speeches-to-be-made-before-controversial-court-closure/ |title= Speeches to be made before controversial closure of Dingwall Court|date=30 January 2015|newspaper=Press and Journal|access-date=20 December 2022}}{{cite web|url= https://www.rossandcromartyheritage.org/home/mid-ross-communities/dingwall/dingwall-history/dingwall-a-short-history/ |title=Dingwall: A short History|publisher=Ross and Cromarty Heritage Society|first=A. A.|last=Woodham| access-date=18 December 2022}} and was subsequently converted for residential use.{{cite news|url= https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/1013328/housing-plan-for-closed-highland-courthouse/ |title= Closed Highland courthouse could start new life as family home |date=1 September 2016| newspaper=Press and Journal|access-date=20 December 2022}}{{cite news|url= https://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/fp/news/highlands-islands/1075059/couple-move-into-former-highland-courthouse/ |title= Couple move into their home… Which just happens to be a former Highland courthouse|date=7 November 2016| newspaper=Press and Journal|access-date=20 December 2022}}{{cite book|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RqEuDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA72 |title= The Spaces of Justice The Architecture of the Scottish Court |first1= Peter|last1= Robson|first2=Johnny|last2= Rodger|year=2017 |page=72|publisher= Fairleigh Dickinson University Press|isbn= 978-1683930891}}

• List of listed buildings in Dingwall

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Category:Government buildings completed in 1845

Category:County halls in Scotland

Category:Category B listed buildings in Highland (council area)

Category:Court buildings in Scotland

Category:Dingwall

Category:Gothic Revival architecture in Scotland

Category:Listed government buildings in Scotland

Category:1845 establishments in Scotland