Pathhead Parish Church, Church Street, Kirkcaldy

The Pathhead Parish Church, on Church Street in Kirkcaldy, was originally built in 1822 and substantially rebuilt after a fire in 1958. It is a rectangular, crowstepped church constructed in a Tudor Gothic style. The church has a three-bay aisless nave and a three-stage, square tower to the north. The exterior is harled with droved quoin strips and dressings, featuring a deep ashlar base course and eaves course. The windows are pointed-arch, with corbelled bartizans, hoodmoulds and label-stops, chamfered reveals, stone transoms and mullions, and transomed stone Y-tracery.

The north elevation is symmetrical, with a crowstepped gable and an advanced tower in the centre bay. Tall, hoodmoulded, transomed and mullioned traceried windows flank the bay, while the outer bays feature hoodmoulded, two-leaf panelled timber doors. The tower’s first stage has steps leading to a deeply moulded doorcase, with a plaque above it, and a window above. Niches and small windows are also present on the east and west faces. The second stage has blind oculi on the north, east and west sides, and the third stage has square-headed, louvered bipartite openings, with a crenellated parapet above.

The east elevation, facing Harriet Street, has three hoodmoulded, transomed and mullioned traceried windows, and small polygonal pepperpot bartizans with ogee corbels and trefoil-headed blind niches at the outer angles. The west elevation is similar to the east. The south elevation is lower, with a raised, tripartite window projecting at the centre and narrow windows high in the gablehead, topped with bartizans.

The windows contain margined, diamond-pattern, multi-pane leaded glazing. The interior features a tower vestibule with ribbed vaulting and decorative plasterwork bosses. The nave has fixed timber pews, a gallery, and a boarded dado. A pointed-arch leads to a raised chancel area which houses a pipe organ and a stained glass War Memorial window depicting the Ascension with flanking angels, a Children’s window to the southwest, and a Communion Window to the southeast. A part-vaulted cellar or crypt contains grave slabs.

Boundary walls, constructed of low saddleback-coped rubble, and gatepiers enclose the church grounds.