[1] The first municipal building in the town was the tolbooth which was built on the east side of the High Street using stones from Arbroath Abbey in 1686.

[1] It was designed by a local architect, David Logan, in the neoclassical style, built in ashlar stone and completed in 1808.

[5] The design involved a symmetrical main frontage with three bays facing onto the High Street; the central bay, which slightly projected forward, featured a doorway flanked by brackets supporting a cornice; there was a tri-part round headed window on the first floor flanked by paired Doric order columns supporting a frieze containing carved rosettes with a parapet above containing a clock decorated with festoons.

[1] Internally, the principal rooms were the great hall, the town clerk's office and the burgh chamber which could also be used for court hearings.

78 High Street was no longer suitable for judicial use and moved back into the town house, converting the burgh chamber into a courtroom.