Guest, Sign inJoin
Tain Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, including Tolbooth, High Street, TainTain Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, including Tolbooth, High Street, Tain · Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0
–Not graded
History of Tain · Historic Environment Scotland

87 listed buildings, 2 of them in the top category

Historic Environment Scotland counts them inside Tain’s locality, 245 for every 10,000 residents. It also has 2 scheduled monuments. We have photos of 12 of its listed buildings.

2Category A46Category B2scheduled monuments8on High Street
Listed buildings
87
245 per 10,000 residents
Category A
2
national importance
Category B
46
regional importance
Scheduled monuments
2
nationally important sites
In pictures

Tain in 13 photos

Tap a photo to step through them full screen.

St Duthus Collegiate Church, boundary wall, excluding scheduled monument SM2803, Castle Brae, TainSt Duthus Collegiate Church, boundary wall, excluding scheduled monument SM2803, Castle Brae, TainCategory A listedStation Road Railway StationStation Road Railway StationCategory B listedHigh Street District Council OfficesHigh Street District Council OfficesCategory B listedScotsburn Road, Mansfield HotelScotsburn Road, Mansfield HotelCategory B listedTower Street, Bank of ScotlandTower Street, Bank of ScotlandCategory B listed+8See all photos

Photos from Wikimedia Commons and Geograph, copied to our own server, each credited to its photographer with its licence; names open the building’s page or its official list entry.

The map

Where Tain’s history is

Every Category A and B building, monument and historic park.

St Duthus's Chapel, Tain, scheduled monumentTain, remains of old parish church and burial ground, scheduled monumentAcademy Street, Former Tain Academy, Category BAnkerville Street Knockbreck Primary School, Category BCastle Brae Museum, Category BChapel Street Shandwick Place Shandwick House,, Category BHigh Street District Council Offices, Category BHigh Street Kenneth Murray Monument, Category BHigh Street Market Cross, Category BHigh Street the Royal Hotel, Category BKing Street Free Presbyterian Church, Category BManse Street St Andrew's Episcopal Church, Category BManse Street, Manse House and Former Stables, Category BMarket Street Clydesdale Bank, Category BMarket Street the Market, Category BMorangie Road Mayfield, Category BMorangie Road and 1, 2., 3, And 4 Springfield, Category BMoss Road, Rosslyn, Category BQueen Street, Tain Parish Church (Church of Scotland), Category BScotsburn Road, Mansfield Hotel, Category BShandwick Street St Duthus Centre. (Formerly St Duthus Parish Church), Category BShore Road, Ross's Store, Category BShore Street, Thornhill, Thornton, Category BStation Road Railway Station, Category BTower Street Former Town Hall, Category BTower Street, Bank of Scotland, Category BTower Street, Tower Gardens (Mr Munro), Category B1 Tower Street/Corner Rose Street, Procurator Fiscal's Office, Category B1, 3 High Street, Category B10 Knockbreck Street, Category B11 Geannies Street, Category B11, 13 High Street, Category B13 Shandwick Street Kingsway Cottage, Category B16, 18 Tower Street, Gilleasbuig House, Category B17, 19 St Andrews Road, Craighill Estate, "New Manse", Category B18 High Street, Category B23 Academy Street, Category B23, 25 High Street (Including Hill View, Market Street, Category B24-28 (Even) Tower Street, Category B3 Gower Street, Category B33, 35, 37 High Street, Category B39, 41, 43 High Street, Category B4 Dunrobin Street Dunrobin House, Category B5 Geannies Street, Category B5 St Duthus Street, Burnside, Category B5 Tower Street, Category B5, 7, 9, High Street, Category B8, 10 Manse Street, Category BSt Duthus Collegiate Church, boundary wall, excluding scheduled monument SM2803, Castle Brae, Tain, Category ATain Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, including Tolbooth, High Street, Tain, Category A
Category ACategory BScheduled monument

Hover a dot for its name; tap one with a photo to open it.

87 listed buildings by grade
2 Category A46 Category B39 Category C

Historic Environment Scotland lists buildings in three categories: Category A for buildings of national or international importance (about 7.5% of listed buildings), Category B for buildings of regional importance (about 50%), and Category C for buildings of local importance (about 43%). Listing protects the whole building, inside and out.

Every entry on Historic Environment Scotland’s designations whose point lies inside the NRS 2022 locality boundary. One list entry can cover a terrace or a group of buildings.

Category A

The 2 Category A listed buildings in Tain

Buildings of national or international importance, about 7.5% of all listed buildings. Every one is photographed. Each opens its own page, with the official list entry.

Category B

The 46 Category B listed buildings in Tain

Buildings of regional importance. 10 are photographed.

Show the other 34
Historic streets

High Street has the most listed buildings

Streets by the listed entries with an address on them. One entry can be a whole terrace, so long rows count once.

High Street8 listed · 6 II*
1, 3 High Street
Manse Street6 listed · 1 II*
Geannies Street5 listed · 2 II*
Gower Street3 listed · 1 II*
Knockbreck Street3 listed · 1 II*
Stafford Street3 listed

Of the 87 entries, 47 are named by a street address; the rest are named buildings such as churches, halls and bridges.

What’s protected

Most of Tain’s listed buildings are homes

Every listed building sorted by what its list name says it is.

Houses, terraces & villas66
Public & civic buildings8
Churches, chapels & priories6
Inns, shops & warehouses4
Walls, gates & bridges2
Memorials, crosses & tombs1

66 entries (76%) are houses, terraces and villas. 6 are churches, chapels and priories.

Buildings are sorted by words in each entry’s name (church, gate, inn, memorial…): the list’s open data has no building type. An entry named only by its address counts as a house.

Category C

39 Category C listed buildings

This category covers buildings of local importance. Open any building to read its official list entry.

All 39 Category C listed buildings, A to Z
Ankerville Street, RosebankChapel Street, Croft-RoyCramond Brae Castlehill (Formerly St Ronan's)Geannies Street 1 and 2 View PlaceKing Street Alpin HouseKing Street Balnagown HotelManse Street, Murrayfield Including Boundary Wall, Railings and GateQueen Street KilrennieQueen Street Tower PlaceShore Road, Slaughter HouseTower Street, Tower Gardens (Mr Cormack and Mr Munro)Tower Street, Tower Gardens. (Offices)1 Ankerville Street1 Geannies Street1 Shandwick Street10 Stafford Street12 Academy Street12 and 14 Knockbreck Street12 and 14 Manse Street13, 15 Manse Street14 and 16 Stafford Street16 Manse Street18 Knockbreck Street, Kingarth2 Gower Place, Sutherland Street2 Gower Street2 Knockbreck Street27 High Street3 Geannies Street3 Tower Street3, 5 Lamington Street (Co-Operative)3, 5, 7 Shandwick Street31 High Street4, 6, 8 Lamington Street4, 6, 8 Stafford Street5 Gower Street5 Manse Street6 Cadboll Place6 Manse Street7 Geannies Street
Conservation areas

1 conservation area covers 9.8% of Tain

Areas the council protects as a whole: demolition and changes to how buildings look need consent, and trees are protected.

Tain 197027 ha
27 hain conservation areas, of 274 ha inside the locality.

80 of the 87 listed buildings stand in one.

Historic Environment Scotland’s conservation areas layer, supplied by councils (incomplete in places, so a page fact, never graded). Hectares are the part of each area inside the locality.

How the list grew

More than half of Tain’s listed buildings were added in one year, 1982

The year each building now on the list was first listed.

1982 · 741971 · 8
19501960197019801990200020102020

The first 8 entries were listed in 1971, 2 of the 2 Category A buildings among them. 74 came in 1982, as Scotland’s list was resurveyed from the 1970s. Only 0 have been added in the last 15 years.

Monuments & landscapes

Monuments, parks and gardens

Designations that overlap the town by a tenth of their area or half a hectare.

2 scheduled monuments

Nationally important archaeological sites and monuments, protected by law; work on them needs consent from Historic Environment Scotland.

St Duthus's Chapel, Tain
St Duthus's Chapel, TainEcclesiastical: chapel
Tain, remains of old parish church and burial groundEcclesiastical: burial ground, cemetery, graveyard
Born here

4 notable people born in Tain before 1900

Their lives on one timeline, earliest first.

John Ross
James Thomson
Alexander Taylor Innes
Thomas Munro
170017501800185019001950
Alexander Taylor Innes
Alexander Taylor Innes1833–1912 · Scottish writer and lawyer
James Thomson
James Thomson1825–1896 · Cabinetmaker and upholsterer
JR
John Ross1726–1800 · Scottish merchant during the American Revolution 1726-1800
TM
Thomas Munro1866–1923 · British solicitor

Everyone born in Tain → Birthplaces from Wikidata; portraits from Wikimedia Commons.

Towns its size

Tain has the 25th most Category A buildings of 190 towns its size

Scottish towns of 1,000–9,000 people, by Category A listed buildings.

Banff11
Kelso10
Jedburgh8
Rothesay7
Brechin6
North Berwick6
Dunblane6
Anstruther5
Kirkcudbright5
Campbeltown5
Biggar5
Tain2
#14 of 190for listed buildings per resident (245 per 10,000). Kirkcudbright, Banff and Anstruther lead.

24 have more. The typical town its size has 0.

Neighbours

Listed buildings in the places around Tain

TownPeopleListedCategory AHistory
Tain3,544872—
Invergordon3,801160—
Alness5,940140—
In brief

Tain in brief

The official list counts 87 listed buildings in Tain, 2 of them in the top category, including Tain Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, including Tolbooth, High Street, Tain. Only 24 of the 190 towns nearest its size have more Category A buildings. On High Street alone there are 8 listed buildings. A conservation area has protected part of it since 1970.

Most entries on the list, 76%, are houses, terraces and villas. Alexander Taylor Innes (1833), James Thomson (1825) and John Ross (1726) are among the 4 people born here before 1900. The big year was 1982, when 74 of the 87 went on the list. Otherwise the figures are ordinary: it also has 2 scheduled monuments.

Questions about Tain’s history

How many listed buildings are there in Tain?

Historic Environment Scotland lists 87 buildings inside Tain’s locality: 2 Category A, 46 Category B and 39 Category C.

What are the Category A listed buildings in Tain?

2, including St Duthus Collegiate Church, boundary wall, excluding scheduled monument SM2803, Castle Brae, Tain and Tain Sheriff Court and Justice of the Peace Court, including Tolbooth, High Street, Tain.

Which street in Tain has the most listed buildings?

High Street (8), Manse Street (6) and Geannies Street (5) have the most listed entries named by an address. One entry can be a whole terrace.

Are there scheduled monuments in Tain?

Yes, 2 scheduled monuments, including St Duthus's Chapel, Tain and Tain, remains of old parish church and burial ground.

How many conservation areas are there in Tain?

1, covering about 27 hectares of the town. The largest is Tain.

When were Tain’s buildings listed?

The first in 1971; the most, 74, in 1982.

Who was born in Tain?

Among people born before 1900: Alexander Taylor Innes (1833), James Thomson (1825), John Ross (1726) and Thomas Munro (1866).

Tain has no History Grade.

Listed buildings, scheduled monuments, gardens and designed landscapes, battlefields, conservation areas and World Heritage Sites: Historic Environment Scotland, Open Government Licence v3.0. Check an entry on Historic Environment Scotland’s portal before relying on it.

Sources: Historic Environment Scotland designations (listed buildings, scheduled monuments, gardens and designed landscapes, battlefields, World Heritage Sites), October 2026, inside the NRS 2022 locality boundary · Historic Environment Scotland conservation areas (compiled from councils; October 2026). All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.