Inveraray Jail

Inveraray Jail stands in Church Square, Inveraray, Argyll and Bute, on Scotland’s west coast. The building was completed in 1820 to replace an earlier town house that had become too small. It was designed by James Gillespie Graham in a neoclassical style, with a symmetrical frontage of three bays facing the square. The courthouse block has a main courtroom on the first floor, lit by Venetian windows and sash windows with balustrades. To the rear the building bows out, giving views across Loch Fyne from the courtroom. A two-storey prison block was added at the same time, built in coursed rubble to the northeast. The jail’s history reflects wider changes in Scottish prison law. After the Prisons (Scotland) Act of 1839 required separation of prisoners, a three-storey new prison block was built in 1845 to designs by Thomas Brown. Further reforms under the 1877 Act led to the transfer of inmates to Barlinnie Prison and the closure of Inveraray Prison in 1889. The courthouse continued in use for county administration until the mid-20th century. Meetings of the Argyll Commissioners of Supply were held here before elected county councils took over in 1890. Today the complex is a museum. Visitors enter through the original courthouse entrance with its fanlight and climb to the first-floor courtroom. The old prison block shows cells and exercise yards as they were in the 19th century. The new prison block displays later regimes and prisoner transfers. Outside, the stone façades and bowed rear elevation frame views of Loch Fyne and the hills beyond.