Kirkcaldy Old Parish Church, Kirk Wynd, Kirkcaldy

Kirkcaldy Old Parish Church

A substantial parish church dominated by a 15th-century tower, significantly altered and extended over the past two centuries. The tower, originally medieval, was given a set-back top stage in 1799 and received doorways in 1807. The main body of the church was rebuilt in 1807 to designs by architects J & A Elliott of Edinburgh, with builder Alexander McFarlane of Perth. An east session house was added in 1961, the interior underwent modernisation in 1968, and repairs followed a fire in 1986.

The building is constructed in droved ashlar with the tower having coursed and squared rubble walls and ashlar surrounds. The church follows a rectangular plan without aisles, featuring a gabled and crowstepped five-bay nave with a three-stage square tower to the west and a later flat-roofed session house to the east. Architectural detail is consistently gothic in character, with plate traceried windows containing stained glass throughout. The design incorporates pointed and segmental-headed openings, oculi, buttressed porches, polygonal spired bartizans, hoodmoulds, chamfered reveals, voussoirs and stone mullions. The tower displays a deep base course, decorative frieze, string course, corbel table and cavetto cornice.

The west elevation is dominated by the three-stage tower set with a recessed final stage. The first stage has a hoodmoulded, deep-set two-leaf boarded timber door with decorative astragalled fanlight and small loop above at the centre; a similar door to the south sits below a small bipartite window and loop; a further smaller loop appears to the left and a small bipartite window to the north. The second stage west face contains a tall narrow light at the centre with a loop to the right, a further tall light to the north, and a square Roman clock face to the centre south with a loop to the left. A corbel table marks each face, giving way to a parapet and set-back bell-housing with louvered light to each face and a small sloping roof of newel stair in the southwest corner.

The north elevation is symmetrically composed with a small flat-roofed projecting porch at the centre. The porch entrance is a two-leaf timber door in a hoodmoulded, pointed-arch opening with voussoirs and blocking course. Two-stage pyramidal coped clasping buttresses flank the porch, their second stage projecting above the blocking course. A full-height traceried window sits behind the porch top half, with matching full-height traceried windows in flanking bays. Pepperpot turrets mark the outer angles. The south elevation mirrors the north.

The east elevation features a narrow flat-roofed session house projecting to the centre bay with a small window near a corniced blocking course, a hoodmoulded bipartite window, and a further window on the return to the left. Lower rendered extensions project eastward and northward. Tall traceried windows occupy the flanking bays with smaller windows to the outer bays. A sunburst-astragalled oculus sits centrally above, with a louvered oculus in the gablehead below the bartizan.

The graveyard surrounding the church is extensive and contains multi-period monuments including some from the 17th century. A coursed rubble boundary wall with rubble copes encloses the graveyard. The entrance off Kirk Wynd is marked by large corniced rusticated gatepiers approached by a broad stepped ramp. Grey slate covers the roof with coped ashlar skews and finials.

The interior was substantially modernised in 1968. The tower vestibule was oak panelled in 1920 and displays War Memorials and marble monuments. The first floor formerly served as the Magistrates' robing room. A stone newel stair rises from the second floor level to the bell chamber, where the bell remains in situ. The church itself features a cornice frieze reflecting the exterior detail, a small modern balcony to the west, and a raised chancel area to the east. The organ, originally by August Gern of London from 1885, was rebuilt in 1963 by Messrs Jardine & Co and again in 1986 by Messrs Rushford & Draper.

The east windows date from 1877 and were designed by Burne-Jones, made at the William Morris works in Surrey. They commemorate Mr James Russell and depict Miriam, Moses, Ruth and Joseph, Mary, Jesus and the angel at Bethlehem (south side); and Moses, Elijah, the Annunciation and the raising of the widow's son at Zarephath (north side). Windows to the north and south date from 1914, donated by Mr John Hunter of St Brycedale and made by Gascoigne of Nottingham. These commemorate ministers of the Church of Scotland since the Reformation (upper lights) and various aspects of the Gospel (lower lights). The west windows of 1988 by John Clark commemorate the 1986 fire, depicting the descending fire of the Holy Spirit (north); the Burning Bush, Moses and the Pillar of Fire, and the Phoenix (south).

Stained glass and leaded small pane glazing feature throughout the building.