Portree Sheriff Court | |
---|---|
Location | Somerled Square, Portree |
Coordinates | 57°24′46″N6°11′42″W / 57.4128°N 6.1949°W |
Built | 1877 |
Architect | James Matthews and William Lawrie |
Architectural style(s) | Neoclassical style |
Listed Building – Category C(S) | |
Official name | Portree Sheriff Court, Somerled Square, Portree |
Designated | 5 October 1971 |
Reference no. | LB13923 |
Portree Sheriff Court is a judicial building in Somerled Square in Portree on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. The building, which continues to be used as a courthouse, is a Category C listed building. [1]
The post of Sheriff of Skye dates back at least to 1223, when Paul Balkason was serving in that role under King Haakon IV of Norway. [2] By the late 17th century, records show that the local laird, Sir Donald Macdonald, 3rd Baronet maintained a sheriff court, to keep his subjects in order. [3] In the mid-19th century, court officials decided to commission a dedicated courthouse for the town. The site they selected was on the southwest side of Somerled Square. [4]
The new building was designed by James Matthews and William Lawrie in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and was completed in 1877. The design involved a symmetrical main frontage of three bays facing onto Somerled Square. The central bay, which was slightly projected forward, featured a square-headed doorway with a rectangular fanlight flanked by brackets supporting a cornice. The other bays on the ground floor and all the bays on the first floor were fenestrated by sash windows with moulded architraves. There were quoins at the edges of the central bay and at the corners of the building and, at roof level, there was an entablature, a pediment over the central bay, and urns at the corners. Internally, the principal room was the courtroom on the first floor, which featured a simple moulded cornice, and three police cells. [5]
In May 1885, the building was the venue for the trial of a group of crofters from Glendale, who had demanded the return of the common grazing land that had been taken from them during the Highland Clearances. They were accused of rioting, assault on a sheriff officer and breach of the peace. Two of them were found guilty and sentenced to three weeks in prison, a remarkably lenient sentence by the standards of the time. [6] [7] [8]
The building continues to serve as the venue for sheriff court hearings in the area, [9] although, due to staffing issues with the escort services, hearings involving juries were moved to the mainland in July 2023. [10] [11]
Ross and Cromarty, is an area in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland. In modern usage, it is a registration county and a lieutenancy area. Between 1889 and 1975 it was a county.
Skye and Lochalsh was a local government district, created in 1975 as one of eight districts within the Highland region in Scotland. It include the Isle of Skye and the Lochalsh area on the mainland. The main offices of the council were in Portree, on the Isle of Skye. The district was abolished in 1996 when Highland was made a single-tier council area.
The Bernera Riot occurred in 1874, on the island of Great Bernera, in Scotland in response to the Highland Clearances. The use of the term 'Bernera Riot' correctly relates to the court case which exposed the maltreatment of the peasant classes in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and exposed the corruption that was inherent in the landowning class. The 'riot' was not fought in the streets or in the fields but in the Scots Lawcourts. It is notable as the first successful legal challenge to nineteenth century Landlordism in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland and was the catalyst for future resistance in what became known as the Crofters War. Modern land reform in Scotland has its roots in the outcome of this event.
Camustianavaig is a crofting township on the island of Skye in Scotland. It is located on the shores of the Sound of Raasay, 5 kilometres southeast of Portree. The Lòn Bàn watercourse flows from Loch Fada to "An Eas Mhòr" below which it is named "Allt Ósglan" and discharges into the sea at Camas Tianabhaig. The stream forms the boundary between the township and Conordan to the south. Ósglan itself is the land on the right bank of Allt Ósglan.
The Isle of Skye, or simply Skye, is the largest and northernmost of the major islands in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. The island's peninsulas radiate from a mountainous hub dominated by the Cuillin, the rocky slopes of which provide some of the most dramatic mountain scenery in the country. Although Sgitheanach has been suggested to describe a winged shape, no definitive agreement exists as to the name's origins.
Glendale is a community-owned estate on the north-western coastline of the Duirinish peninsula on the island of Skye and is in the Scottish council area of Highland. The estate encompasses the small crofting townships of Skinidin, Colbost, Fasach, Glasphein, Holmisdale, Lephin, Hamaraverin, Borrodale, Milovaig, Waterstein, Feriniquarrie, Totaig, Hamara, and others.
Inverness-shire or the County of Inverness, is a historic county in Scotland. It is named after Inverness, its largest settlement, which was also the county town. Covering much of the Highlands and some of the Hebrides, it is Scotland's largest county by land area. It is generally rural and sparsely populated, containing only three towns which held burgh status, being Inverness, Fort William and Kingussie. The county is crossed by the Great Glen, which contains Loch Ness and separates the Grampian Mountains to the south-east from the Northwest Highlands. The county also includes Ben Nevis, the highest mountain in both Scotland and the United Kingdom.
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Mary MacPherson (née MacDonald), known as Màiri Mhòr nan Òran or simply Màiri Mhòr, was a Scottish Gaelic poet from the Isle of Skye, whose contribution to Scottish Gaelic literature is focused heavily upon the Highland Clearances and the Crofters War; the Highland Land League's campaigns of rent strikes and other forms of direct action. Although she could read her own work when it was written down, she could not write it down herself. She retained her songs and poems in her memory and eventually dictated them to others, who wrote them down for publication. She often referred to herself as Màiri Nighean Iain Bhàin, the name by which she would have been known in the Skye of her childhood.
Margaret Hope MacPherson was a Scottish crofter, politician, author, and activist. During her later life, she was known as the "First Lady of Crofting".
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