Markinch Institute, Betson Street, Markinch

The Markinch Institute, built in 1897-9 by James Gillespie & Scott and extended in 1920, is a two-story with attic, L-shaped municipal building constructed in a Scots Renaissance style. It is located on Betson Street, Markinch.

The exterior walls are primarily constructed of squared and snecked rubble with ashlar quoins and harl, featuring a deep battered base course, string course, a 1st floor cill course, and eaves cornice. The building has crowstepped gables, pedimented dormerheads, and basket-arched openings at ground level. Stone transoms and mullions are present, with rounded arrises to corners.

The east (entrance) elevation is two bays wide, with a recessed crowstepped gable on the right and a lower helm-roof on the left. The recessed right bay has a panelled timber door with a 10-pane fanlight and a window to its right. Above, a corniced transomed tripartite window is positioned at the 1st floor, with an arrow-slit punctuating the gablehead. The left bay features steps leading to a porch with part-glazed, boarded timber double doors within a roll-moulded surround, flanked by walls. A full-width stone balustraded balcony extends above the porch, supported by a moulded ashlar bracket. A tall, transomed window breaks the eaves in a semicircular-pedimented dormerhead. The return to the right incorporates a glazed arrow-slit at ground level, a small window at 1st floor, and a corbelled flag-pole base in the re-entrant angle.

The south elevation presents three bays, with a two-bay, single-story extension to the left. The centre bay has a small window to the right and a window to the left, with a glazed arrow-slit in the right bay and further windows to the left. The extension features two bipartite windows to the outer left. The centre bay’s 1st floor is slightly recessed, featuring a glazed, keystoned oculus to the right and a window to the left, with a blind parapet above a recessed tripartite window beneath a catslide roof. A tall transomed window sits in the right bay, topped with a semicircular pediment in the gablehead. A window is located in the left bay, with an arrow-slit at the gablehead, and a tall corner wallhead stack breaks the skew to the outer left.

The west elevation is characterised by a blank gable of the single-story wing to the right and a gable to the left with a hoodmoulded, transomed tripartite window at 1st floor, and an arrow-slit at gablehead (the ground floor obscured).

The north elevation displays narrow windows at ground level to the outer right and left, and a dominant, shouldered wallhead stack at the centre.

The windows generally feature a small-pane glazing pattern above the transoms, with a fixed 6-pane over 2-pane pattern below. Some windows are timber sash and case construction, with the exception of the 1st floor left window on the south side, which has plate glass glazing in the upper sash and an extractor fan. Grey and red slates cover the roof. The building’s stacks are constructed of cavetto-coped squared rubble and have cans, decorative ridge tiles and cast-iron downpipes with decorative rainwater hoppers.

A semicircular-coped rubble boundary wall encloses the site. A decorative finialled cast-iron gas lamp, possibly associated with the Provost, is positioned above the main door on the east elevation.