The Tolbooth, at the Harbour in Stonehaven, is the Town's oldest building built by the Lord of Dunnottar Castle and 5^th Earl Marischal of Scotland in the late 16^th Century. From 1600 to 1778 it was a magistrate's court and jail and this Sunday the 7^th August from 1:30 to 4:30 the Ghost of the former Tolbooth Jailer Adam Hood will make an appearance.

Adam was born in the Tolbooth in 1600 and at 14 was apprenticed to his father who was the senior Jailer at the Tolbooth at that time and on his father's death in 1725 Adam became the Jailer. Adam will recount to locals, children and tourist alike many stories of those incarcerated within the Tolbooth.

Notable incarcerations included Jacabite soldiers returning after the defeat of Culloden in 1746 and the three Episcopalian Minsters who in 1748-9 were sentenced to 6 months for breaching an Act of Assembly.  Less lucky were those burnt on the cheek or right shoulder or had their ear's nailed.  As was the story, that Adam's father told him, of Angus Moffat who in 1699 though innocent of the charge of sheep stealing (which had been done by her common law husband) was tried in the upper part of the Tolbooth, incarcerated and then hanged on Gallow Hill in nearby Dunnottar Woods.

In reality of course Adam is in fact part time amateur actor Gary Brindley whom in his sane moments is a Maths lecture at RGU. Phil Mills-Bishop one of the Tolbooth Community volunteers and committee member commented ..."the Tolbooth ghost played by Gary is  another of the In-house Tobooth Residencies that have been created to bring the Museum alive and exciting to locals, visitors and in particular children. Contemporary artisans and artists from storytellers to fiddlers in music, poetry, words and song of the local land and sea draw inspiration and continuity from the historical culture displayed within the Museum"