St Leonard's Parish Church, Kinghorn

St Leonard's Parish Church, Kinghorn

A cruciform-plan, aisled parish church with a 3-bay nave and a distinctive ogee-capped, 3-stage bell-tower. The building has a complex construction history spanning several centuries.

The church was substantially rebuilt in 1774 by the Edinburgh architect George Paterson, working with mason Roger Black and wright Robert Kilgour. However, the South (Sailor's) aisle was earlier repaired in 1608–1609, and the North (Balmuto) aisle was rebuilt in 1774 by mason James Wilkie and wright Robert Kilgour. In 1894, the architectural practice Sydney Mitchell & Wilson undertook major works, rebuilding the west gable, adding a rose-windowed chancel, and constructing the bell-tower. The sanctuary was reconstructed and dry-dash harling was added in 1937.

The exterior is rendered in dry-dash with ashlar quoins and margins, finished with a moulded band course, bracketed cill course, and continuous hoodmould. Architectural details include a pilastered and voussoired segmental-headed doorcase with a broken pediment. Windows are varied in type—Venetian, rose, and segmental—with chamfered reveals and stone mullions throughout.

The principal west elevation is a broad gabled frontage with the bell-tower slightly set back in a re-entrance angle to the left. The doorcase features a two-leaf panelled timber door and stained glass semicircular fanlight, with '1894' inscribed on the tympanum of the pediment. Above sits a prominent keystoned oculus in the gablehead. The bell-tower is engaged to halfway up its second stage, with small, narrow windows. The first stage has a west window; the second stage has windows to the north and west, with a narrower light high on each face. The belfry contains tall round-headed bipartite openings with the bell, surmounted by a cornice and cross-finalled ogee cap.

The north elevation is aisled with three windows. The Balmuto aisle projects to the outer left with steps down to a segmental-headed door. A carved table above the door reads 'Rebuilt by Claud Boswell of Balmuto 1774', with fragments of a medieval grave slab to the left. Returns to the aisle include a door, window, and two windows (the left being bipartite).

The east elevation features a lower gabled chancel with a projecting rose window at its centre, a window to the right, and a flat-roofed extension in the re-entrant angle to the left with a small porch. The remains of the Old Kirk (listed separately) adjoin the chancel.

The south elevation displays three decoratively-astragalled windows to the centre, a small window in a recessed bay to the outer left, and the Sailor's aisle projecting to the outer right. The aisle has a large four-light segmental-headed window within a cross-finalled gable, with dated carved stonework at the gablehead. Small windows sit high up on the return to the right, with a door and window on the return to the left.

Throughout, windows feature multi-pane glazing patterns, many with figurative coloured glass. Roofing is slated, with coped, dry-dashed stacks (that to the Balmuto aisle retaining thackstanes), ashlar-coped skews, flat skewputts, and stone gablehead finials.

The interior is galleried with fixed timber pews, boarded dadoes, and a ribbed ceiling. A timber-panelled gallery on narrow cast-iron columns houses a pipe organ. The stone chancel arch frames a panelled timber reredos with memorial stalls and a Second World War Memorial Communion Table. A panelled timber pulpit is present, and a classically-detailed part-glazed screen serves the laird's loft of the Balmuto aisle. The Sailor's aisle functions as an apsidal chapel, featuring a fine carved screen, a model of HMS Unicorn (made 1567), and a screen with a painted panel. A turnpike stair provides access to the bell-tower.

The stained glass includes a chancel window gifted by Reverend W Jardine and Mrs Dobie. The north aisle contains a 750th anniversary window depicting Jesus with fishermen and the text 'I WILL MAKE YOU FISHERS OF MEN'; a 1946 memorial to George Nicol reading 'SUFFER LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME'; and clear glass. The Sailors aisle memorial windows from the 1940s depict Saints Margaret and Andrew, and the Apostles.