Stonehaven Tolbooth Museum

The museum showcases a range of artefacts highlighting Stonehaven’s heritage, including items from when the building served as a prison. Visitors can see an original cell door, the Inverbervie stocks (one of the few seven-hole stocks in the UK), and the Crank—a punishment device weighted and turned by prisoners, giving rise to the nickname “screws” for prison guards.Displays also include kitchen and household items from bygone days, such as a hand-powered washing machine, tattie chipper, and spurtle.Exhibits commemorate the discovery of the first known land-dwelling oxygen-breathing animal, Pneumodesmus newmani, found at nearby Cowie by Mike Newman and dated to 428 million years ago.The museum is very family-oriented, offering attractions such as a free dinosaur hunt where children can search for hidden dinosaurs and receive a token lucky dip prize.