Churchyard, St Machar's Parish Church, Huntly Road, Aboyne

Churchyard, St Machar's Parish Church, Huntly Road, Aboyne

St Machar's Parish Church is a Striped Perpendicular Gothic church built in 1842, constructed from coursed tooled granite with finely finished dressings. The building incorporates the 1761 Huntly Vault. The design features a base course with pointed-arched openings, chamfered reveals, angle buttresses breaking the eaves with coped pyramidal finials, and an eaves cornice.

The principal east elevation is symmetrical with three bays, the central bay slightly advanced. It has a deeply chamfered doorway with hoodmould at ground floor level, fitted with a 2-leaf decoratively panelled timber door. Above this is a 3-light traceried window with decorative hoodmould, topped by a birdcage belcote stepped up to the apex with a pyramidal cap. The left bay has a window; the right bay has an infilled window.

The north elevation is asymmetrical with four bays. It features a lean-to vestry at the centre of the ground floor with two irregularly placed windows, two coped stacks to the left return, and a piend-roofed addition to the re-entrant angle flanked by a timber lean-to. A panelled timber door opens to the right return, with two half-height windows above. Each flanking bay has a window. The outer left bay contains a chamfered doorway to the Huntly Vault, surmounted by tooled stone inscribed "1761" and the Huntly coat of arms, with a boarded timber door.

The west elevation is symmetrical with three bays. The ground floor doorway bay is slightly advanced, featuring a 2-leaf boarded timber door surmounted by a 3-light traceried window. A louvred cross-opening is set in the gablehead. The right flanking bay has a blind window; the left flanking bay has a window.

The south elevation is symmetrical with four bays and regular fenestration to each bay.

The church is roofed in grey slate with a lead ridge, coped stone skews, two coped stacks to the lean-to vestry, and cast-iron rainwater goods. Windows throughout are predominantly small-pane timber traceried.

The interior contains a porch with stairs to galleries at the north-west and north-east corners. The south wall holds a timber pulpit, communion table, chairs and reading desk. Decorative timber panelled galleries on cast-iron octagonal columns run along the west, north and east sides. The pews are simply panelled pine. A bell pull is positioned in the window reveal to the east, and an organ occupies the south-west corner. The barrel-vaulted Huntly Vault is situated in the basement to the north, reached from the exterior.

A single-storey church hall was added in 1902 to the west of the church. Built from tooled coursed pink granite with some ladder snecking and finely finished margins, it features chamfered pointed-arched openings and a timber eaves course.

The hall's west elevation is asymmetrical with five bays; four bays form an addition to the left, each with a bipartite window. A shouldered doorway to the right return holds a boarded timber door with glazed panels, and the outer right bay has a bipartite window.

The south elevation is symmetrical with three lancet windows set in relieving arches. The east elevation is asymmetrical with five bays: three bays to the left have bipartite windows, the penultimate bay to the right has a single window, and the outer right has a glazed and boarded timber door. The north elevation is symmetrical with three lancet windows in relieving arches.

The hall is roofed in purple-grey slate with a lead ridge and two cast-iron ventilators. It has coped stone skews with decorative finials and cast-iron rainwater goods. Windows are predominantly square-pane leaded. The interior is simple with modern alterations.

The graveyard surrounds the church and is enclosed by a rubble boundary wall with pointed coping. Gates to the east and west have square grey granite gatepiers coped with ogee caps and spherical finials. A pedestrian gateway opens to the east, with geometric ironwork gates throughout.