THE OLD TOLBOOTH
PARLIAMENT SQUARE

Brass plates embedded into the cobbles west of St. Giles’ in Parliament Square, marks the site of the Old Tolbooth Prison.

The 400 year old building was demolished in 1817, having served as a boothe for collecting tolls, a council chamber, a court house and squalid prison.

Prisoners were executed usually by hanging from the gallows on the site now marked with the Heart of Midlothian.

Site of the Old Tolbooth Prison
Shown in red on this 18th Century Map