Our Heritage

Dunoon Burgh Hall is a historic building situated in the small rural town of Dunoon in Argyll, Scotland.

Designed by architect, Robert Alexander Bryden the building dates from 1873, when its foundation stone was laid.

The Category B listed building was originally the home of town officials.  Following major refurbishment, it now serves the local community, and the wider area of Cowal, as a fully accessible, creative and cultural hub.

Find out more about Dunoon Burgh Hall and its Heritage

Dunoon Burgh Hall was built after Dunoon was granted Burgh Status in 1868 when the need for a place for the people of the town to meet was first envisioned.  At the time of opening in 1874 the building was home to the first theatre in Argyll.

Archive material recovered during the Hall’s renovation shows how the building was used, as a place for dancing, singing, meeting and performing, alongside more mundane but necessary activities, such as filing complaints and paying bills.

Burgh records and newspaper articles chart a time of significant change in Dunoon. They document moments of civic-mindedness and enterprise, alongside disagreement and social exclusion. They walk us through nearly a century and a half of the town’s development.

Dunoon Burgh Hall’s story begins in a time of male-only social and political structures and brings us to the present, with a diverse group of men and women reclaiming the Hall on behalf of the local community.