| Kirkcudbright Tolbooth | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type | Tolbooth |
| Location | Kirkcudbright, Dumfries and Galloway |
| Coordinates | 54°50′08″N 4°03′21″W / 54.83556°N 4.05583°W |
| Built | 1627–1629 |
| Built for | Kirkcudbright Town Council |
Listed Building – Category A | |
| Designated | 1971 |
| Reference no. | LB36542 |
  Location of the tolbooth within Dumfries and Galloway | |
Kirkcudbright Tolbooth is a historic municipal building in Kirkcudbright in Kirkcudbrightshire in the administrative area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland. Built between 1627 and 1629 to serve the town as a centre of commercial administration, a meeting place for the council, and a prison, it was used for all these roles until the late eighteenth century when the council moved much of its business to new, larger premises they had constructed across the street; the tolbooth remained in use as a prison until the early nineteenth century, after which it remained in council ownership and was put to a variety of uses.
Amongst the people incarcerated in the tolbooth during its use as a prison were people accused of witchcraft, and as late as 1805 it was used to imprison a woman convicted of pretending to be a witch. It was also used to imprison Covenanters during the Killing Time of 1679–1688; in 1684 a crowd stormed the building, killing a guard and freeing the Covenanters held within. American naval hero John Paul Jones was held in the tolbooth in 1770, following his arrest on suspicion of homicide after a sailor under his command died following a flogging Jones had ordered.
Kirkcudbright Tolbooth was designated a Category A listed building in 1971. It was renovated in the 1990s, and is currently used as a visitor centre and art gallery.