page_title: Kilmaurs
section_title: The Council Chamber and tolbooth
hierarchical_section_title: Kilmaurs / History / The Council Chamber and tolbooth
caption_attribution_description: Kilmaurs Public Hall, East Ayrshire, Scotland.
context_page_description: Kilmaurs is a village in East Ayrshire, Scotland which lies just outside of the largest settlement in East Ayrshire, Kilmarnock. It lies on the Carmel Water, 21 miles southwest of Glasgow. Population recorded for the village in the 2001 Census recorded 2,601 people resided in the village It was in the Civil Parish of Kilmaurs.
context_section_description: The former Burgh of Barony and latterly the Parish Council chambers and jail in Kilmaurs is known locally as the 'jougs', 'Jugs' or 'Juggs' after the metal collar and chain that still hangs from the wall. The village also once had stocks for holding and humiliating miscreants.
  A tower of some description existed before Hugh and David Barclay built the present steeple in 1800. The present Town house with its council chamber and originally two vaulted cells below may date from at least 1709 with repairs recorded in 1743. One was entered by a small door facing west. Close refers to the building as being a tower house in miniature. The Burgh of Barony with its forty "tenementers" was established in 1527 so an earlier Council House is likely to have existed.
  Internally the council chamber had a bench, a dock and a space between for the clerks and councillors and a fireplace was once present. The 'Jougs' was also used as the Kilmaurs fire station in the 19th century; the fire engine being housed in one of the two prison cells of the old jail. The Dick Institute in Kilmarnock now houses the preserved wooden 1830s fire engine. It was in good condition and still at Kilmaurs in the 1940s, painted pillar-box red and carrying the Glencairn coat of arms. The stout wood tank held around fifty gallons and the hose is only two yards long; the engine was hauled by a pair of horses. Cuthbertson records that the village's hand bell reposed on the engine. The Kilmaurs jougs themselves were used in last used in 1820 when a housebreaker was held in them. He was so small that he had to be stood on a stone block.
  William Aiton in 1808 commented on the Kilmaurs town-hall and jail, saying they "are contemptible, of little use, and ought to be pulled down." In 1874 the steeple was hit my lightning and twelve feet of masonry were destroyed. Rebuilding severely stretched the burgh's finances.
  The original tolbooth stood nearby at the crossroads and may have been used to hold prisoners when the Council House was just a single storey.
caption: Kilmaurs Public Hall.
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