The Tolbooth in

Aberdeen Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), a ...

, Scotland is a 17th-century former

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, English language in England, standard English, Australian English, Australian, and Huron Historic Gaol, historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention cen ...

which is now operated as a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

. The museum contains prison cells and exhibits various police and law and order related items.

History

Considered one of the oldest buildings in Aberdeen, the tolbooth was built between 1616 and 1629 and is attached to

Aberdeen Town House Aberdeen Town House is a municipal facility in Castle Street, Aberdeen, Scotland. The town house, which is the headquarters of Aberdeen City Council, is a Category A listed building. History After rapid population growth in the first half of t ...

on the city centre's Union Street. In the mid-16th century, Aberdeen commissioned its first

guillotine A guillotine is an apparatus designed for efficiently carrying out executions by beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secured with stocks at t ...

for executing criminals there. This device is on display at the museum for the public to view. In around 1630, Marion Hardie from Elgin was arrested for practicing

witchcraft Witchcraft traditionally means the use of magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually women who were believed to have ...

, incarcerated in the tolbooth and then strangled and burnt in front of the public outside the tolbooth. By 1703, witchcraft was no longer a crime, but by then many of the 45 women and 2 men accused of it in the area had been executed. In 1686, a

market cross A market cross, or in Scots, a mercat cross, is a structure used to mark a market square in market towns, where historically the right to hold a regular market or fair was granted by the monarch, a bishop or a baron. History Market crosses ...

was built in front of the tolbooth. It was restored in 1821 and then moved to its present site in 1827. During the

Jacobite rising of 1715 The Jacobite rising of 1715 ( gd, Bliadhna Sheumais ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of England, Ireland and Scotland for the exiled Stuarts. At Braemar, Aberdeenshire, ...

, many local people announced their support for

James Francis Edward Stuart James Francis Edward Stuart (10 June 16881 January 1766), nicknamed the Old Pretender by Whigs, was the son of King James II and VII of England, Scotland and Ireland, and his second wife, Mary of Modena. He was Prince of Wales fro ...

as the true King of Scotland in front of the tolbooth, and after the

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745, also known as the Forty-five Rebellion or simply the '45 ( gd, Bliadhna Theàrlaich, , ), was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took ...

and subsequent defeat at the

Battle of Culloden The Battle of Culloden (; gd, Blàr Chùil Lodair) was the final confrontation of the Jacobite rising of 1745. On 16 April 1746, the Jacobite army of Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force under Prince Wi ...

, the tolbooth accommodated over 96 Jacobite prisoners while they awaited trial. In the 18th century, Aberdeen merchants and magistrates imprisoned many local children in the tolbooth and other buildings around the city before transporting them to America to work as slaves. These children were supposed to have been street children with nobody looking after them, although some were said to have been snatched when out playing. Aberdeen City Council took over the former jail and opened it to the public in 1995. A paranormal investigation team visited the building as part of the ''

Most Haunted ''Most Haunted'' is a British paranormal reality television series. Following complaints, the broadcast regulator, Ofcom, ruled that it was an entertainment show, not a legitimate investigation into the paranormal, and "should not be taken s ...

'' TV series in April 2009: the episode aired in December 2009. In 2016, the museum celebrated its 400th anniversary.

The museum

Visitors can see the prison cells with their original barred windows and doors, and the guillotine which was used to execute convicted prisoners. There is a cell known as the Jacobite cell where visitors can experience an interactive model of Willie Baird, a prisoner in 1746, sitting next to his Jacobite compatriots, James Innes and Alexander Annand, and telling visitors about his life, while they await trial and sentencing.Aberdeen Jacobite Trail.pdf (aberdeencity.gov.uk)

References

External links

Aberdeen Art Gallery and MuseumsTolbooth Prison
on About Aberdeen website {{DEFAULTSORT:Tolbooth Museums in Aberdeen Buildings and structures in Aberdeen Prison museums in the United Kingdom Defunct prisons in Scotland Reportedly haunted locations in Scotland