The Glebe House, Aboyne

The Glebe House, Aboyne

A 3-storey house with basement and attic, built in 1790 with a 2-storey addition added in 1835, forming an L-shaped plan. The main 1790 building is rectangular with 3 bays; the 1835 addition is 2 bays.

The building displays contrasting finishes: the south and east elevations are harled, while the north and west elevations feature pink and grey tooled coursed granite with cherry cocking. The 1835 addition has a base course and eaves course of stone.

The south (entrance) elevation is asymmetrical with 4 bays overall. The gabled 1835 addition projects to the left as a 2-storey, 2-bay structure with regular fenestration. A single-storey addition flanks the ground floor of the left return, with a single window to its left. The right section shows regular windows to the ground and first floors, a square-pane leaded window in the attic above a single-storey porch in the re-entrant angle, a panelled timber door with decorative fanlight facing east, and a single window to the south. The 1790 bays to the right contain windows to the first and second floors of the penultimate bay, with regular fenestration to the outer right bay.

The east elevation presents a near-symmetrical gabled bay with an off-centre ground-floor window to the right and a 4-pane window set in the attic gablehead.

The north elevation is near-symmetrical with irregular fenestration to the ground and basement floors. Stair windows appear between ground and first floor, and between first and second floors of the centre bay. A small 4-pane window lights the second floor. The flanking left bay has regular fenestration, the right bay a 2-pane window to the second floor. A boarded timber larder sits to the right of the ground floor.

The west elevation is near-symmetrical with 2 bays. The ground floor is largely obscured by a single-storey piend-roofed addition containing 2 windows, with a window to its left return and an adjoining addition to the right. Regular fenestration appears to the first floor and regularly placed windows to the second floor, including a 2-pane replacement window to the right. A small single-pane window is set in the attic gablehead. The 1835 addition adjoins to the right.

Throughout the building, windows are predominantly 12-pane timber sash and case windows. The roof is grey slate, graded to the 1835 addition, with a lead ridge and stone skews. The 1790 house has coped gablehead stacks with circular cans; the 1835 addition has a coped paired diamond-end gablehead stack and a single diamond-end wallhead stack with an octagonal can. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted throughout.

The interior was not inspected in 1998.

A single-storey U-plan former stables building stands to the north of the house. Built of pink granite rubble with tooled long and short dressings, it features boarded timber doors and timber windows with top hoppers.

The south elevation of the stables is near-symmetrical with 4 central bays, each containing boarded timber doors except for a window in the penultimate bay to the left. A dormer with a boarded timber opening breaks the eaves to the left. The outer left bay is advanced and contains a large 2-leaf timber door, with a window to its right return. The outer right bay is also advanced, with a large 2-leaf timber door to the left and a sliding timber door to the right, two blind windows above, and a timber door to the left return.

The east elevation is asymmetrical, with a door at the centre flanked to the left by a large boarded and glazed sliding door.

The north elevation is asymmetrical, with a panelled door to the right flanked by a window.

The stables feature 6-pane timber windows, a slate roof with lead ridge, and cast-iron rainwater goods. The interior contains rubble walls, a timber roof, and 9 stone and timber nesting boxes.

Square-plan bullfaced granite gatepiers with semi-spherical caps stand to the northeast of the house, flanked by a short section of bullfaced wall with bullfaced coping stepped up.