St Margaret's R.C. Church, Holyrood Place, Dunfermline

St Margaret's Roman Catholic Church, Holyrood Place, Dunfermline

This church was built between 1889 and 1896 to a design by R Rowand Anderson. The chancel and west sacristy and vestry were added in 1934–36 by M Watson of Edinburgh, probably under Reginald Fairlie. An east sacristy and kitchen were added in 1973, along with further extensions to the west.

The church is rectangular in plan, oriented north to south, with an aisled nave, an apsidal north end, and a large gabled porch to the south. The main design comprises a 4-bay nave of Transitional style based on Peterborough Cathedral (part of a larger uncompleted scheme), and a 3-bay chancel with an apse. Slender flanking towers with pyramidal roofs flank the south gable.

The construction is of coursed snecked rock-faced red sandstone with droved ashlar towers, buttresses and dressings to the nave and porch. The chancel is of yellow sandstone. Dressings to the apse and those to the sacristy and vestry are partly or wholly of concrete. There is a base course (except to the altered sacristy and vestry), a band course at cill level to the aisles, and another band course above the arches of the clerestory windows on either side of the nave. A machicolated eaves band runs to the nave and aisles, with a parapet to the nave. The chancel has an eaves band with a machicolated band course below it to the apse. Round-arched openings occur to the nave (including aisles) and the upper part of the apse, with splayed reveals to the gable and either side of the nave and aisles, and the upper part of the chancel. The gables are coped.

The south elevation is dominated by a large porch occupying most of the width of the nave. The porch features a round-arched entrance with a 2-leaf boarded timber door with ornate strap hinges and a fanlight. Above the entrance is an oculus within a shouldered gable. Shallow buttresses, stepped out twice to both returns, flank the porch; an arrowslit pierces the upper part of the buttress on the left return, and a band course marks the right return. The gable end of the nave is set back behind the porch and contains a blind 3-light window arcade in Palladian arrangement, with nook shafts. Band courses occur at cill level and above, following the outline of the arches. An ornamented Greek cross (cross fleurette) marks the gable apex.

The flanking towers are of square plan, each with nook shafts at the angles rising from the base course to eaves level. A band course links to that across the arches of the upper windows of the nave. Each tower has a double-arched blind arcade with nook shafts, flanked and divided by shafts with carved capitals. Grotesque-headed brackets ornament the spaces between. A cornice sits above, followed by a pyramidal roof with roll-moulded ribs at the angles and to the centre of each face. Gargoyle-type carvings occur at the base of each rib, and a splayed pinnacle crowns the apex. The aisle entrances and windows (left and right respectively) have band courses at eaves level and at cill level to the right aisle. Both aisles terminate at gableted, set-back buttresses against square-plan tower-like pinnacles which rise from the eaves with nook shafts at the angles and finialled pyramidal roofs.

The nave comprises 4 bays divided by pier buttresses to both the clerestory and aisles, with a single window to each bay at each level.

The chancel is partially obscured at lower level on either side by rendered lean-to structures: the west one incorporates a vestry (built in 1934, extended and remodelled in 1973); the east one incorporates a kitchen (1973). The south bay is altered and cement-rendered with a concrete eaves band on each side (probably 1973). The remaining bays contain quatrefoil windows.

The apse is semicircular in plan, with 3 bays. The upper part of each bay is recessed as a panel, containing a window with nook shafts (the shafts are missing, though capitals and bases remain) towards the apex. A cill course and a band course mark the springing point of the window arch in each bay. Below each recessed panel are a pair of Caernarvon-arched windows.

Most windows are multipane leaded; the sacristy, vestry, and lower part of the apse contain replacement UPVC windows. The roofs are of grey slate. Some early cast-iron downpipes with conical rainwater heads decorated with bands remain.

The interior features round-arched arcading to the nave with cushion capitals to the moulded aisle piers and circular shafts supporting the clerestory and ceiling. A semicircular timber barrel-vaulted roof curves over the arched windows with flanking lower-height arches. The choir gallery arcade above follows a Palladian arrangement, with a tall stilted central arch and lower-height flanking ones. A stone reredos, thought to be by Reginald Fairlie and dating from 1939–40, is carved in Romanesque style and incorporates stylised figures of saints, with a timber canopy at its apex. Pair of stained glass windows depicting St David and St Andrew (probably post-war) occupy the apse. A circular stained glass window of St Margaret is set over the porch at the south end.