Stirling Tolbooth

The first building on the site was a medieval tolbooth which was completed in 1473. The tolbooth included a meeting rooms for the burgh council and legal courts. During a civil war, a Parliament was held in the Stirling tolbooth in August 1571. Replica Honours of Scotland were made for the event by Mungo Brady. After the old tolbooth became dilapidated in the late 17th century, burgh officials decided to procure a new structure: the new building was designed by Sir William Bruce in the Scottish baronial style, built by a master mason, Harry Livingstone, in ashlar stone and was completed in 1705. It featured a doorway on the ground floor, a niche on the first floor, sash windows on the…

The tolbooth is owned and operated by Stirling Council. Containing a main auditorium, an exhibition space, a cafe/bar, a recording studio, a smaller performance space, and several meeting spaces, the tolbooth is the base for Stirling Council's Arts and Event Team, and used as both a performance space for touring music, comedy and theatre acts, and a hub for local community arts. Programming and arts provision, in 2025, included Interesting Things, a multi-genre all-day festival, Sing the Greys, a tribute to the music of Frightened Rabbit, and Pump up the Jam, a songwriting and band workshop for young people.