4-8 Abbot Street, Dunfermline

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.