Peterhead Convict Prison was built around 1888. It was designed to hold 208 prisoners and to be Scotland's only convict prison.Occupancy averaged at around 350 however, until peaking at 455 in 1911.Additional buildings were completed in 1909, 1960 and 1962, bringing capacity up to 362.According to the Scottish Prison Service, the prison can, at this time, accommodate up to 142 prisoners.
It closed in 2013, to be replaced by the new HMP Grampian, the first prison in Scotland to jointly house youths, men and women. The first inmates transferred on to site on 2 March 2014 having been temporarily housed at other sites and connected to family with virtual visits by videolink.
Until the opening of Peterhead Convict Prison, Scots convicts were transported to England to serve their sentences. The first convicts were received in August 1888.
Peterhead supplied the labour force to work in Stirlinghill Quarry and in the Admiralty Yard attached to the prison. These convicts supported the work of a civilian labour force employed by the Admiralty to construct the Harbour of Refuge breakwater.
The Admiralty project was unique in Scotland as it was served by the only state-owned passenger-carrying railway in its day.
On 28 September 1987 a riot in the prison's D wing resulted in prisoners taking over the building and taking a prison officer, 56-year-old Jackie Stuart, hostage. The rioters were serving life in prison for violent crimes. It was thought that they had nothing to lose and would not hesitate to make good on their threats to kill their hostage, whom they had taken up to the rafters. When negotiations broke down, the then Home Secretary, Douglas Hurd, dispatched the SAS to bring the riot to an end on 3 October.
Peterhead Prison has a history of poor conditions for prisoners, being referred to as "Scotland's gulag, a prison of no hope. A 2005 inspection reported that electricity had only just been made available in all the cells and slopping out continues at the prison.
