Hard time: Crime and punishment in 17th century Dunfermline

The first image shows the Tollbooth that would have faced people travelling down Dunfermline High Street until its demolition in 1769.

At that time the High Street ended at this point. The road on the right was Bruce Street, and the main way out of town to the west was by turning left down the Kirkgate and then taking the road that wound its way from the steps of Dunfermline Abbey through Pittencrieff Park and across what is now the Coal Road.

The archway under the fan-shaped stairs in the image was known as the Tollbooth Port.

This is the Tollbooth which stood on Dunfermline High Street until its demolition in 1769. (Image: Memory Lane)

On the upper storey of the building there was a debtors prison, the middle storey had the 'Council Room' whilst the lowest level had the ‘Laich Prison’, as well as cellars, the ‘Witches Hole’ and ‘Thieves Hole’.

The area outside was where justice at that time was administered in public view, using instruments such as the pillory and stocks.

One such punishment meted out by the kirk session, at a time when the church held immense power over peoples everyday lives, was carried out on the 22nd October 1648.

‘It is enacted that as Janet Robertson still goes on with her lownerie and profanity, notwithstanding the act formerly made against her, that she shall be carted and scourged from the parish through the toun, and marked with a hot iron and be banished from the parish.’

George Chalmers in this period was one of the most public spirited and enterprising of the various lairds to have occupied the Mansion House in Pittencrieff Park, described as a ‘merchant of Edinburgh, Laird of Pittencrieff, banker, coal-master, ironstone quarry master, grain dealer and shipper from Iberia to the Carolinas with an iron in every fire’.

Chalmers successfully lobbied Dunfermline Council to allow him to demolish the Tollbooth and to build a bridge over the ravine behind the building which he agreed to fund.

This allowed the creation of a new road called Bridge Street which opened up Dunfermline to the west via another new road, Chalmers Street, named in his honour. (On a more self-interested note, it also allowed Chalmers to close the road through Pittencrieff Park thereby offering him more privacy).

This was the first building to be constructed on the newly created Bridge Street. The Townhouse was followed by others such as the New Inn, now the City Hotel. (Image: Memory Lane)

Our second image shows the first building to be constructed on this new street, the new Townhouse, that was followed later by such buildings as ‘The New Inn’, (now the City Hotel after undergoing a variety of name changes).

Chalmers sat for a portrait by Sir Henry Rayburn, Scotland's foremost portrait painter, in 1776 (probably best known today for his work ‘The Skating Minister’).

This portrait of George Chalmers, described as one of the most public spirited and enterprising of the lairds who stayed in Pittencrieff House, hangs in City Chambers. (Image: Memory Lane)

Our next image shows this portrait which now hangs in the City Chambers.

The final photograph shows the magnificent building that replaced the Tollbooth in 1879, the present day City Chambers, as seen from Pittencrieff Park with the rear of buildings such as the Old Inn etc in view.

The City Chambers in Dunfermline, as seen from Pittencrieff Park. It replaced the Tollbooth in 1879. (Image: Memory Lane)

More photographs like these can be seen in Dunfermline Carnegie Library & Galleries.