St Margaret's R.C. Church, Ballater Road, Aboyne

St Margaret’s Roman Catholic Church is a church dating from 1874, built in a plain Gothic style. It is located on Ballater Road, Aboyne, with an adjoining single-storey and attic presbytery to the South.

The church is constructed of tooled, squared, and snecked pink and grey granite with finely finished margins. A rough-faced base course runs along the bottom, and the building features set-off buttresses. The windows have chamfered reveals and flattened pointed arches. The north elevation, which is the main entrance front, is asymmetrical with four bays. Bipartite windows are placed in the two central bays. A recessed apse to the right has a single stained-glass window. A gableted porch projects from the left bay, featuring a decorative stop-chamfered doorway. A two-leaf boarded timber door, with elaborate strap hinges, is set within the porch, and a stained-glass quatrefoil is set in the gablehead above. A decorative ironwork finial tops the apex. The western elevation is also asymmetrical, with a canted apse to the left and later additions to the right. The south elevation has three bays with a two-pane window in the centre of the ground floor, flanked by four-pane windows. A gableted window breaks the eaves to the left of the attic floor, and a two-pane skylight is positioned to the right. The eastern elevation includes an advanced chapel bay to the right with a geometric-traceried pointed arch window set within a hoodmould. A round-arched niche contains a statue in the gablehead, and a stone cross tops the apex. A bipartite window is located on the right return. The adjacent manse has an advanced gabled bay with a canted four-light window spanning the ground and first floors. A grey granite lean-to porch is set into the re-entrant angle to the right. A stained-glass panelled timber door is on the right return, accompanied by a ground-floor window and a gableted window breaking the eaves above the attic floor.

The presbytery has predominantly two-pane and four-pane timber sash and case windows, while the church’s windows are mostly replacements with textured plate glass. The roof is covered with purple-grey slate and has lead ridges. Coped stone skews feature carved label stops. Cast-iron rainwater goods are fitted.

The interior of the presbytery was not inspected in 1998. The church interior is modern, with boarded timber panelling below dado level and full-height boarded timber in the apse. It has an open pine roof and timber pews.

To the southwest of the church is a former carriage house enclosed by a granite rubble boundary wall. The church and manse are surrounded by a rubble boundary wall with pointed coping. Square-plan gatepiers with a rough-faced finish are positioned on the north side, with two-leaf ironwork gates.