Old High School, Priory Lane, Dunfermline

Old High School, Priory Lane, Dunfermline

A 2-storey building with attic and basement in an irregular, roughly rectangular plan, designed by James A Mercer and F and G Holme of Liverpool and built between 1883 and 1886. The former school building was converted to flats in the late 20th century. It displays an asymmetrical Scottish Baronial design featuring crowstepped gables and a prominent belltower. The structure is constructed of coursed snecked rockfaced sandstone with droved sandstone ashlar dressings. Base courses and cill courses to the first and second floors run across the wraparound facade of the principal southern elevation. A moulded eaves band ornaments most of the principal elevation, with overhanging eaves found elsewhere. Long and short surrounds and chamfered reveals decorate the principal and side elevations to the east and west. Segmental relieving arches crown the ground floor windows of the principal elevation.

The principal south elevation comprises five bays with two bays set back to the outer right. The centrepiece features a round-arched entrance at the base of the belltower, framed by an ashlar surround with stepped hood-mould, splayed reveals and moulded voussoirs. The date "AD 1884" is inscribed at the apex, with a heraldic panel incorporating a visored helmet and rampant lion displayed above. The entrance has a replacement panelled timber door and fanlight. Two small paired windows, set beneath a shared relieving arch with lintels rounded at the edges, sit above. A small architraved window with an undulating cill and curved pediment sits in the lower storey of the tower above. The upper storey of the tower is corbelled out slightly and features a ball-finialled crowstepped gable at its apex. A segmental-headed opening with moulded surround and concave reveals occupies the centre. A cross-legged gargoyle in high relief, carved by Alexander Neilson of Edinburgh, sits in a deep cill panel, flanked by waterspouts at the top of the corbelling. A roundel containing a medieval head in high relief appears above. Two paired openings with louvred vents occupy the right return of the tower, with a waterspout to the left at the top of the corbelling. A pair of windows with shared relieving arch appears to the ground floor of the outer right bay, with a single short segmental-headed basement window below and a window above. The attic cill course steps over a monogrammed panel below the eaves. A 3-bay section set forward to the left features a pair of windows to each bay on the ground floor, each with a carved stone panel bearing a scroll inscribed with the name of a major literary or scientific figure immediately beneath the relieving arch. A crowstepped gable with coronet finial surmounted by a lion crowns the centre bay, above a pair of segmental-headed windows set within a shared shallow round-arched recess. Hood-moulds ornament the windows and recess, all with carved stops shaped as lions' heads. An elaborately carved tympanum to the recess features ogee heads over the windows, the town coat of arms and an owl. A carved roundel sits at the apex of the gable, with cable-moulded tubular rainwater spouts to either side at the base. Triple window arrangements grace the first floor to the flanking bays.

The east elevation comprises two bays. The left bay steps forward slightly and contains windows to the ground, first and attic floors, with a relieving arch to the ground floor opening and pilastered architraves to those above, joined vertically by a pilastered panel with a "D" at the centre. The first floor window is bracketed at its base. A pedimented dormer with a shell motif at the centre of the pediment and flanking ball finials and carved finial at the apex ornaments the attic. A crowstepped gable with an onion-shaped finial surmounts the right bay. A pair of windows with shared relieving arch appears to the ground and first floors. An architraved 2-light mullioned window with an open-topped pediment sits in the attic, inscribed with the motto "LABOR.OMNIA.VINCIT" on the lintel, with a curved centrepiece topped by a ball finial to the pediment. A small window occupies the outer right of the ground floor.

The west elevation consists of two bays, both topped by crowstepped gables. The left bay is of slightly lower height, stepped down further to the left and finished with a ball finial, while the right bay carries an urn finial. The left bay steps forward slightly and features an entrance with a segmental-headed tympanum inscribed "VIRTUTIS.GLORIA.MERCES" to the outer left. Two windows occupy the right side, both with segmental-headed openings; the left has a lintel below and a tympanum carved with dragons and a thistle. A 4-light mullioned and transomed window with three lower lights and a central Caernarvon-arched upper light, framed by a round ashlar relieving arch, rises in the gable above. The first floor cill course steps up over a panel bearing a heraldic shield to the outer left. The right bay sets back. A 2-light mullioned window with a carved stone panel bearing a scroll sits below a relieving arch to the ground floor. A 4-light mullioned and transomed window with Caernarvon-arched upper lights appears above.

The north elevation features three central bays set forward slightly. Three windows occupy the ground and first floors to the central bay. Crowstepped gables with ball finials crown the flanking bays, each containing segmental-arched recesses with paired upper and lower windows to the ground floor and a pair of windows with shared relieving arch above, with an attic window to the gable. A gabled bay with a ball finial sets back to the left, featuring an entrance with a window to the left and a window above, paired windows to the gable and an inserted window below. An altered half bay to the right has an inserted ground floor window and a pair of segmental-headed openings, now both transomed windows, above, with a window to the upper level. A narrow bay sets back to the outer right, formerly with an entrance beneath a catslide roof.

The windows are predominantly 6-pane timber sash and case windows, some with 2-pane horizontally hung casements at the head. Grey slate roofs with red tiled ridges run throughout. The roofs are gabled except for a piended section with finial at the southeast corner. Two square cupolas with swept finialled piended roofs and one octagonal cupola with balustrade and ogee roof surmounted by a weathervane run along the main east-west axis of the roof. A large corniced and coped gablehead stack combining eight square and round-plan flues stands to the rear north side of the tower, currently missing its cans.

A gateway to Buchanan Street features a pair of square-plan sandstone ashlar gatepiers, each with a base course, frieze and moulded cornice surmounted by raised coping with a ball finial. Cast-iron gates, partially replaced, are fitted with ball finials. A pedestrian gateway to the bowling club sits to the south.