The Tolbooth in

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

, Scotland is a 17th-century former

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, or remand center, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various cr ...

which is now operated as a

museum A museum is an institution dedicated to displaying or Preservation (library and archive), preserving culturally or scientifically significant objects. Many museums have exhibitions of these objects on public display, and some have private colle ...

. The museum contains prison cells and exhibits various police and law and order related items. The building has been featured on popular television as the setting for a

ghostlore Ghostlore is an intricate web of Tradition, traditional beliefs and folklore surrounding ghosts and List of reportedly haunted locations, hauntings. Ghostlore has ingrained itself in the cultural fabric of societies worldwide. Defined by narrative ...

story.

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 as well as the venue for hearings of Aberdeen Sheriff Court, is a Category A listed building. ...

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

guillotine A guillotine ( ) is an apparatus designed for effectively carrying out executions by Decapitation, beheading. The device consists of a tall, upright frame with a weighted and angled blade suspended at the top. The condemned person is secur ...

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

Elgin Elgin may refer to: Places Canada * Elgin County, Ontario * Elgin Settlement, a 19th-century community for freed slaves located in present-day North Buxton and South Buxton, Ontario * Elgin, a village in Rideau Lakes, Ontario * Elgin, Manit ...

was arrested for practicing

witchcraft Witchcraft is the use of Magic (supernatural), magic by a person called a witch. Traditionally, "witchcraft" means the use of magic to inflict supernatural harm or misfortune on others, and this remains the most common and widespread meanin ...

, 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 ( ; or 'the Fifteen') was the attempt by James Francis Edward Stuart, James Edward Stuart (the Old Pretender) to regain the thrones of Kingdom of England, England, Kingdom of Ireland, Ireland and Kingdom of Scotland ...

, 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 (British political party), Whigs or the King over the Water by Jacobitism, Jacobites, was the House of Stuart claimant to the thrones of Ki ...

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

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745 was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, when the bulk of t ...

and subsequent defeat at the

Battle of Culloden The Battle of Culloden took place on 16 April 1746, near Inverness in the Scottish Highlands. A Jacobite army under Charles Edward Stuart was decisively defeated by a British government force commanded by the Duke of Cumberland, thereby endi ...

, 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.

Ghostlore

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'' 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