Tolbooth, Main Street, West Wemyss

The first municipal building in West Wemyss was a medieval tolbooth which was completed around the time that the village became a burgh of barony in 1525. After the original tolbooth became dilapidated, David Wemyss, 4th Earl of Wemyss, commissioned a new structure on the same site. A masonry break suggests that some of the fabric of the lower levels of the original building were incorporated into the new structure. The new building was designed in the Scottish medieval style, built in harled rubble and was completed in around 1700. The design involved an asymmetrical main frontage with three bays facing Main Street. lancet windows in the second, third and fifth stages and an opening to a…