Canongate Tolbooth

The Canongate Tolbooth rises above the Royal Mile with its distinct, crenelated tower and a prominent clock face jutting out over the sidewalk. Built in fifteen ninety-one, this stone structure served as the administrative heart of the independent burgh of Canongate. It housed the jail, the courtroom, and the tax collection office. Prisoners once languished in the dark cells below while officials debated civic laws upstairs. It remains a rare example of a sixteenth-century Scottish burgh building that has survived into the modern era.