Anstruther, St Andrews Road, Former Waid Academy

The former Waid Academy, located on St Andrews Road in Anstruther, was built between 1884 and 1886 by David Henry, with a library and hall addition to the rear completed in 1909 by J Currie. This single-storey, seven-bay school building is designed in a roughly I-plan layout, featuring advanced gabled outer bays and a central, advanced square-plan, three-stage tower in the collegiate Gothic style. Notably, a 1930s classroom block by George Sandilands and all additions from 1956 by Fife County Architects to the north are not considered of special interest.

The building is constructed from squared and snecked sandstone rubble with ashlar dressings, featuring a base course and a moulded eaves course. It has mullioned windows and a main entrance with a four-centred arch topped by a carved tympanum by John Rhind, which depicts a ship leaving a castellated harbour. The entrance is flanked by buttresses, and the tower above has shallow-pointed, louvred openings at the third stage, capped by a castellated parapet. The former library and hall at the rear has single-storey wings on either side of a slightly advanced gable (east elevation) that includes three tall round-headed windows and shouldered skews.

The windows predominantly feature multi-pane glazing in timber sash and case frames, and the roof is pitched with grey slates and red clay cresting along the ridges. The building has corniced ridges and end stacks on the side and rear elevations.

The interior, observed in 2015, is largely typical of educational buildings from its period, having undergone various later remodelling to meet the evolving needs of the school. The 1909 assembly hall was transformed into a library during the 1956 remodelling and extension, and it retains a well-detailed early 20th-century double-height, top-lit, trussed timber ceiling.