295A-297 High Street, Kirkcaldy

The building at 295A-297 High Street, Kirkcaldy, is a late 18th-century tenement that was substantially refurbished in 1902 by A MacMaster, with further modernisation occurring in the 1980s. An 18th-century outbuilding is also present on the site.

The main building is a four-storey, three-bay Queen Anne style tenement, which incorporates a public house at ground level. The ground floor is constructed of polished red granite, with painted ashlar above a decorative impost level. Further ashlar is employed with outer channelled pilaster strips extending upwards. A brick stair tower and a single-storey wing are located at the rear. A mutuled cornice sits above the ground floor, and a cill band defines the third floor. The windows are arranged in segmental- and round-headed openings, with raised, tabbed margins to the first and second floors. The ground floor windows feature keystones, hoodmoulds, rounded stop-chamfered arrises, stone transoms and mullions.

The south-facing (High Street) elevation is symmetrical above the ground floor. A broad, segmental-headed window with decorative astragalled tripartite detailing, including columnar mullions, panelled aprons, and coloured leaded glass, is positioned off-centre to the right. Flanking this are round-headed doorways, each with deep-set two-leaf timber doors and timber-blocked fanlights incorporating extractor fans. A pend entrance is located to the outer left, supported by pilasters and a decorative moulded pediment above an elliptical keystoned oculus with painted small-pane glazing and a panelled timber door. The first and second floors feature a small bipartite window centrally positioned over the main bay, with larger bipartites flanking it. Pilaster strips are adorned with cartouches surmounted by putto masks and cornices. The third floor has a small bipartite window centrally positioned below a decorative windowhead inscribed "Victoria House established 1780, Refurbished 1902 by A MacMaster", and flanking hoodmoulded, segmental-headed, keystoned windows within gabled bays. Outer pilaster strips culminate in cavetto coping below scroll-moulded gable ends.

The windows are generally timber sash and case, with an eight-pane glazing pattern. A fixed window at ground level retains small-pane glazing. The roof is covered with grey slates, topped with coped ashlar stacks, some retaining cans, and ashlar coped skews. Cast-iron downpipes are accented with decorative rainwater hoppers.

Inside the public bar of 295A, original dado-height ceramic tiles (with later tiles above, installed in the 1990s) and decorative cornices remain, along with a ceiling featuring coloured glass depicting a ship within a roundel, bordered by an Art Nouveau design and a coloured margin. A rear room is characterised by an open timber roof, boarded dado, and a mutuled timber fireplace.

The rubble outbuilding, formerly a bothy or byre, has droved quoins. The west-facing elevation features pantiles (with asbestos on the east side) and ashlar coped skews. A broad doorway is positioned to the right, while a window has been blocked on the left.

Coped rubble boundary walls enclose the property. One wall at the rear probably dates to 1786 and includes a lintel with indecipherable initials carved into it on the left side.