Council Offices, 2 Abbot Street, Dunfermline is a Grade B listed building in the Fife local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 25 March 1992. Block of shops/offices.

Council Offices, 2 Abbot Street, Dunfermline

WRENN ID
high-pilaster-ebony
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Fife
Constituency
Dunfermline and Dollar MP: Graeme Downie (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
25 March 1992
Type
Block of shops/offices
OS grid reference
NT 091 873
Coordinates
56.07058, -3.46169
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The Council Offices, located at 2 Abbot Street, Dunfermline, were designed by Muirhead and Rutherford of Dunfermline and built in 1912. This three-storey building is a long, L-shaped block constructed in a Free Edwardian Baroque style. The exterior is finished in polished sandstone ashlar, with a base course, a string course above the ground floor, a band course to the upper floor (except on the outer right side), and a moulded eaves cornice.

The south (principal) elevation features ten bays, with the bay on the far left rounded and the bay on the far right chamfered. A slightly projecting three-bay entrance section is located to the left of the centre. A prominent Doric porch with a festooned entrance stands at the centre, featuring a round-arched entrance, a moulded surround, and a scrolled keystone with flanking festoons, leading to a two-leaf panelled timber door. Flanking windows around the entrance have moulded surrounds and a distinctive voussoir-like lintel detail. A central window above the porch is accentuated by a Gibbs aedicule with a broken-base pediment and radiating keyblocks. Further windows along the elevation are detailed with moulded architraves and cornices, with a small apron beneath each first-floor window. Segmental-headed windows are found in the outer left bays and pairs of windows are featured on the second floor, with the left-hand window elaborately adorned with a broken-base pediment and brackets. The three bays to the right of the entrance feature a panelled timber door between the second and third bays, a small window between the first and second bays, and segmental-headed windows with keystones in the outer bays. Recessed and canted bays rise above, supported by scrolled brackets, each with a three-light window on each floor. A round-arched stair window, including a stone mullion and wide panelled transom, is centrally positioned; smaller flanking windows are on the first and second floors. Segmental-headed entrance and a panelled timber door with a fanlight are positioned in the outer right bay, alongside a shop window with a moulded surround. A window is present in each bay above, with a uniquely designed window set within a corbelled rounded section of wall, topped with a finialled semicircular roof on the far right of the second floor. A breaking-eaves gable with a blind light sits above the bay to the left.

The east (Guildhall Street) elevation is a single bay with a breaking-eaves gable containing a blind light, below a shop window with a moulded surround and a window on each floor above.

The west (Music Hall Lane) elevation is distinguished by a central entrance with a moulded surround, a panelled timber door, a pair of windows with chamfered surrounds to the left, and a segmental-headed window with a moulded surround to the right. The outer flanking windows are similarly detailed on each storey, with a two-light window on the left side of the second floor.

The building primarily uses two-pane timber sash windows. The roof is covered with grey slate, and the ashlar stacks incorporate moulded coping. A central stack rises from the main ridge, while a panelled wallhead stack is located centrally on the west elevation. The interior of the building was not inspected in 1998.

Local climate

Council Offices, 2 Abbot Street, Dunfermline receives an average of 930 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 71% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 55% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 46 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 87% of listed buildings. Of these, 24 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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