Town Hall, 5 St Catherine Street, Cupar

The first municipal building in the town was a medieval tolbooth which stood at The Cross and which dated back at least to the first half of the 15th century. The tolbooth incorporated prison cells on the ground floor and an assembly room on the first floor. King Charles II was entertained in the assembly room on his journey to Falkland in July 1650, and the aeronaut, Vincenzo Lunardi, was carried there in triumph after crossing the Firth of Forth in a hot-air balloon, in December 1785. By the early 19th century, the tolbooth had become dilapidated and the provost, John Ferguson, proposed that the tolbooth and an adjacent property, Balgarvie House, be demolished as part of an initiative to…