Let’s focus on the epicentre of Forres as we make our way through the heart of town. It is not so much a scenic route as it is a passage over some of the quietest, oldest ground in Moray. In five minutes flat and with no detours, you will have covered all three of these landmarks and the High Street won’t seem quite the same, the next time you pass through.
The tower
The Tolbooth is hard to overlook. With its clock and cupola and a flagpole that puts in an appearance above every other roof in town, it has dominated the High Street for close on 800 years. What stands there now is from 1838, a Scots Baronial affair put together by William Robertson. Three storeys, a proper courthouse and a tower with more than a touch of Victorian flair to lend the place some importance. One could say that was the intention.
But it has not always been so presentable. The first time we see a tolbooth mentioned in writing on this spot is 1586, and the centuries that followed were unkind. By 1655 the council was having none of it, calling the place “thackit” and ruinous, the walls hardly fit to support the roof. A solid rebuild was called for between 1671 and 1677. Then in 1698 the town’s merchants and burgesses put up £333 1s 8d of their own money for a reconstruction, and by 1734 Forres had a building to be proud of.
There is one detail that tends to provoke a reaction. You will find no records older than 1586 because in 1390 Alexander Stewart, the Wolf of Badenoch, saw to it that the town and its papers were put to the torch. So beneath the polish and the pigeons, the tower’s history is rooted in a medieval arson case or two. Not many can claim the same of their town hall.
Within its walls you will find what has served as courtroom, jail and police station. Locals will tell you about the narrow tunnel at its side, “Bobby’s Bow”, once the back door to the station. The Forres Heritage Trust have been tending to the place since 2014 and have been slowly putting it right.
Over to the square
Come out in front of the Tolbooth and you are looking at the Mercat Cross. It is a bit more imposing than the name implies.
Thomas Mackenzie of Elgin designed it in 1844 with public funds. And if it seems familiar, it is. We are not going to pretend otherwise; it was modelled on the Scott Monument in Edinburgh, only brought down to a size a market town can manage. A little borrowed grandeur, and we don’t mind being open about it.
One could say it has not had an easy existence. In the past it was positioned in the street proper, not set back on the paved ground as you see it now; and before this cross there was an older one on the very same spot, the new structure put in place over the old base. For a century and a half the Moray weather and time have taken their toll. By 2018 the finer carved finials were for the most part crumbled or gone altogether. Fortunately stonemasons have been at work since then to put right what was lost, crafting new finials and putting the cross back in something of its original glory. The last of the finials were put back in 2026.
There is a reason for that attention to detail. Mercat crosses used to be where every Scottish burgh did its business, the place to hold markets and make your deals while proclamations were read out. Forres has not let go of that tradition; you will find festivals and other gatherings making use of the paving between the Tolbooth and the cross with some regularity.
Stand in the square
The space itself is unpretentious. It does not have the cobbled, chocolate-box appeal of some towns but is far more lived-in. As the commercial and civic hub of Forres since being made a Royal Burgh in 1496 or so, the little square has seen its share of history. A local will tell you flat out that a royal castle was here in 900AD. The castle is no more, though its mound can still be found at the western end of town. But the High Street has hardly altered its course in a millennium: from the mound to this square in the middle.
Take a moment with your coffee to look around. There are no glass-and-steel intrusions or twentieth-century buildings encroaching on the thoroughfare. Just the cross at your feet, the Tolbooth tower above and the quiet sense of several hundred years of burgh life playing out as it always has.
Why it’s worth the five minutes
A lot of heritage walks will demand half a day and good boots. Not this one. Five minutes and the coffee you intended to have will do. You will have a better idea of how Forres has endured, having been burned down and rebuilt its town hall three times over with nothing but stubbornness to show for it, all while keeping a wry sense of humour about appropriating Edinburgh’s finest design for its own market cross.
When you are done with your bit of history you are right where the cafés and shops of the High Street pick up, so there is no harm in finding a table and putting in an afternoon. Directly opposite the Tolbooth, you’ll find a bustling cafe whose name s dedicated the bestowmwnt of the Royal Burgh title, 1496.
The Tolbooth is open to visitors at specific dates and times.