Primary School, Dunfermline Road, Limekilns

Primary School, Dunfermline Road, Limekilns

Designed by T Hyslop Ure & Beveridge and completed in 1912, this single-storey primary school is a substantial building of rectangular plan with distinctive circular end bays. It features separate entrances for girls and boys, reflecting the educational conventions of its period. The building is constructed of stugged and snecked sandstone with ashlar long and short quoins, base and band courses, eaves courses, and moulded stone surrounds to windows with advanced cills. Built onto a slope, the structure is compensated by a larger plinth to the southwest. A school bell sits above the right of the girls' entrance.

The principal elevation faces southeast and is the most elaborate. The left section contains two windows, followed by an advanced entrance porch to the right. The central focus is a two-leaf replacement glazed and timber door with fanlight, flanked by single windows. The doorway surround is moulded stone with keystone, decorated with banded rustication and a frieze with an inscribed panel reading 'GIRLS'. Steps with iron railings lead down to a basement door to the left. The advanced central section features symmetrical circular outer bays, each with three windows. Single windows sit between the circular bays and two advanced gabled sections, which each contain three windows. The central window of each gabled section has cavetto moulding and banded rustication with a moulded hoodmould and keystone. The gable ends are corbelled with rounded apexes and diamond-shaped panels. The central section, set back from the main facade, has two tall windows breaking the eaves line, similarly detailed with cavetto moulding, banded rustication, and decorative hoodmoulds. Two further windows occupy the left and right returns of this central section. At the far right, an advanced porch for boys contains a central glazed and panelled door with surround matching the girls' entrance but inscribed 'BOYS', flanked by single windows, with an additional window in the right return and a door at the far right.

The northeast elevation displays a central tall window breaking the eaves course with cavetto moulding, banded rustication, and decorative hoodmould with keystone. The stonework is advanced below this window, which is flanked by single windows sharing a continuous moulded cill.

The northwest elevation shows four uniformly placed windows to the far left with lugged ashlar surrounds and extending tabs. A coped wallhead chimney with band course and raking shoulders stands to the right. To the right of the chimney are three windows, the central one taller and breaking the eaves, similarly detailed with lugged ashlar surrounds and extending tabs. A plain wall addresses the central section, while the fenestration arrangement and chimney placement at the far left mirror to the right with an additional window. A modern addition stands to the right.

The southwest elevation mirrors the northeast, with a central tall window breaking the eaves course, detailed with cavetto moulding, banded rustication, and decorative hoodmould with keystone. Stonework is advanced below, flanked by single windows with a continuous moulded cill.

The interior features a tiled entrance, though only partially visible at the time of survey in 2000.

The windows throughout are 12-pane timber sash and case designs with horns, the taller examples fitted with pivoted upper casements. The roof is of piend slate with gabled sections to the southeast elevation, flat-roofed porches to both the girls' and boys' entrances, and slated conical roofs to the circular end bays crowned with ball and spike finials. Rooflights serve the rear. Wallhead stacks occupy the rear elevation, with an additional wallhead stack to the southeast elevation behind the girls' entrance, featuring corniced detailing, raking shoulders, and circular cans. A corniced ridge stack stands to the right of the left circular bay. Cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers complete the external detail.

The boundary comprises a tall rubble wall to the rear, stepped to the northeast with curved coping and curved coping to the southwest wall. To the front, a low stugged and snecked sandstone wall with railings curves to meet two pairs of corniced gatepiers, left and right, topped by decorative iron gates.