South Lodge, Aboyne Castle Policies

South Lodge, probably designed by George Truefitt and dated 1889, serves as a lodge within the policies of Aboyne Castle. It is a single-storey building with an attic, set on a square plan. The lodge is constructed from rough-faced, squared, and snecked pink and grey granite, with finely finished margins. It features long and short quoins, sloping cills, relieving arches over the ground-floor openings, and a rope-moulded eaves cornice.

The southeast elevation is asymmetrical, with a bipartite window off-centre to the right and a bay to the left of the ground floor. A flat-arched opening with column support marks the outer angle to the right. A window breaks the eaves off-centre to the right of the attic floor, topped with a tooled ivy pediment. The northeast elevation is also asymmetrical, with four bays. An advanced flue breaks the eaves in the penultimate bay, displaying a carved shield bearing the arms of William Cunliffe Brookes. There are two flat-arched openings to the left bays of the ground floor, and a window breaks the eaves to the left of the attic floor, adorned with a carved ivy pediment. A circular-plan engaged tower is positioned on the outer right, featuring a window to the ground floor and a tripartite window to the first floor, with a stepped rope hood mould. A boarded timber door is set into the re-entrant angle on the left side of the tower.

The northwest elevation is asymmetrical, with three bays. Two flat-arched openings are located in the centre and right bays of the ground floor, while a tower occupies the bay to the left, featuring a doorway to a re-entrant angle on its right side. A small window is present in the bay to the right of the attic floor. The southwest elevation is asymmetrical, with a small four-pane window off-centre to the left of the ground floor. Flat-arched openings are located to the outer left of the ground floor, surmounted by a tooled panel bearing the "H" of Huntly, topped by a crown. A bipartite window breaks the eaves, incorporating a piend roof to the bay to the right of the attic floor.

The windows are predominantly six-pane timber casements. The roof is of graded grey slate, with lead flashings. Coped, shouldered granite wallhead stacks, including one with a 1889 datestone, rise from the roof, topped with circular cans. Cast-iron rainwater goods are also present. The interior was not inspected in 1998.

To the west and east of the lodge, there are pairs of finely finished, square-plan, corniced granite gatepiers, each displaying a carved “H” of Huntly surmounted by a crown within a rope moulded roundel. Two-leaf ironwork gates stand between the gatepiers. Rough-faced, coped boundary walls enclose the southeast, south, and west sides of the lodge, adjoinng the boundary walls of Bydand, which is a separate listed building.