Cupar St.John's & Dairsie United Parish Church - Cupar, Fife. - Unique Steeples on Waymarking.com

Built between 1875 and 1878 to a design by Glasgow architects Campbell Douglas and Sellars, this became the new site of the Cupar Free Church. In 1900 the union of the United Presbyterian Church and the Free Church of Scotland, changed the name to St.Johns United Free Church. In 1929 another merger meant that it was now a Church of Scotland building. Then in 2009 a union with the church in the nearby village of Dairsie produced its current title.

The church is situated in the centre of the town of Cupar and is set back to the north of the main thoroughfare of Bonnygate. The tower and spire is set at the southern entrance and dominate the view from the south.

At the foot of the tower the entrance is through a recessed arched door. The lower half of the tower is rectangular and divided into two by a projecting string course. On the south side is a single arched window above the string with a plain hoodmould, this is the only feature on this stage.

The second stage is octagonal with the tower supported on four corners by clasping buttresses. The four buttresses stop at the foot of four octagonal piers which end in pinnacles which have chevron mouldings around their bases. Between the piers are two lancets where the church bells are visible. A projecting string course runs above the lancets around the tower.

The spire is divided into four by three decorative bands. Below the first there is an arrangement of three openings under an arch and a sharply pointed gablet which recurs between the pinnacles in every other face. The band is pierced by two quatrefoils in every face of the tower. The next band above has a similar arrangement. Above this there are circular openings around the circumference of the spire.

The steeple is 160 feet tall and is the highest structure in the town. It is well seen from the entrance on Bonnygate to the south, and from the higher ground surrounding the town.