[1] Originally, court hearings in Perthshire were held in a tolbooth in the High Street which dated back at least to the 15th century.

[2][3] The Parliament of Scotland met in the tolbooth in 1604 and 1606,[4] and many prisoners were incarcerated there by the Duke of Cumberland in the aftermath of the Jacobite rising of 1745.

[6] The new building was designed by Sir Robert Smirke in the Greek Revival style, built in ashlar stone at a cost of £32,000 and was completed in 1819.

The central section of seven bays featured an octastyle portico formed by a colonnade of ten fluted Doric order columns supporting an entablature, a frieze and a pediment.

[10] The building in Tay Street then reverted to being used solely for judicial purposes, with the south wing being re-modelled as offices for the court.