Conservation-first repair:

Arbroath Courthouse

High Street, Arbroath · 2026

Our role: Principal contractor
Client: Arbroath Courthouse Community Trust
Architect: James F Stephen Architects
Engineer: Narro
Value: Under £0.5m
Scope: Cement removal, DOFF cleaning, stone replacement, lime repairs, harling and limewash, leadwork

Arbroath Courthouse has stood on the High Street since the mid 1800s, built in the soft, clay-bound Angus sandstone that defines so much of the town. For the Arbroath Courthouse Community Trust, which is bringing the former Townhouse, Link and Guildry buildings back into use as a community hub, we carried out the external stonework and fabric repairs as principal contractor, following a conservation-first, minimal intervention approach: repair first, and replace only where necessary.

Before & after

Drag across the image to compare the building before our work and after completion.

Arbroath Courthouse after restoration by LTM Group

BeforeAfter

Arbroath Courthouse, 88 to 94 High Street, Arbroath, Angus — photograph 1

Arbroath Courthouse, 88 to 94 High Street, Arbroath, Angus — photograph 2

Arbroath Courthouse, 88 to 94 High Street, Arbroath, Angus — photograph 3

Arbroath Courthouse, 88 to 94 High Street, Arbroath, Angus — photograph 4

Arbroath Courthouse, 88 to 94 High Street, Arbroath, Angus — photograph 5

The challenge

Decades of well-meant repairs had done real harm. Hard cement coatings, renders and Lithomex patch repairs had been applied to the soft sandstone, trapping moisture and accelerating decay from within. Once the coatings came off, the stone behind was found to be heavily scored for key, the south and west elevations showed structural movement, and iron cramps and timber dooks were splitting cills, lintels and rubble walling, all on a busy town centre street.

Our solution

We took a repair-first approach agreed with the design team. Bird netting, spikes and redundant metal fixings were stripped out, every elevation was tap tested and recorded, and defective cement and Lithomex was removed by hand before the stone was descaled and cleaned with a high temperature, low pressure DOFF system. A full condition survey then set out which stones to keep, repair or replace. Lost detail was rebuilt in bespoke, colour-matched lime mortar repairs, and only failed copes, rybats, lintels and cills were renewed in new dressed sandstone. Ashlar was repointed in a hot-mixed lime mortar, while the rear rubble elevations were repointed, deep packed and finished in three-coat lime harl with four coats of limewash and a final tallow coat. New Code 7 lead cappings protect the parapets, and the sash and case windows were overhauled.