Tolbooth Museum

Considered one of the oldest buildings in Aberdeen, the tolbooth was built between 1616 and 1629 and is attached to Aberdeen Town House on the city centre's Union Street. In the mid-16th century, Aberdeen commissioned its first guillotine for executing criminals there. In around 1630, Marion Hardie from Elgin was arrested for practicing witchcraft, incarcerated in the tolbooth and then strangled and burnt in front of the public outside the tolbooth. In 1686, a market cross 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, many local people announced their support for James Francis Edward Stuart as the…

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.