St Margaret's Episcopal Church And Burial Ground, Aberlour

St Margaret's Episcopal Church and Burial Ground in Aberlour was designed by Alexander Ross and built between 1875 and 1879 in the Gothic style. This tall cruciform church is oriented east-west and features a clerestory and narrow buttressed side aisles. It is constructed from pink tooled granite with contrasting tooled ashlar dressings. The chancel is slightly lower and has transepts at the east end. A gabled porch at the southwest has a pointed-headed entrance flanked by polished granite nook shafts with stiff leaf capitals, and above it is a niche containing a statue of St Margaret. A slender octagonal belltower rises at the angle of the west gable with the porch, and the bell chamber is lit by narrow louvred lancets, topped with a facetted spire that has four triangular louvred lucarnes.

The five-bay aisles are illuminated by narrow paired cusped lights, and the nave clerestory has similar triple windows. The east gable of the chancel features long triple windows under a stepped continuous hoodmould, while the west gable window has geometric tracery. The church is supported by angle buttresses and has steeply pitched slate roofs.

Inside, the church has a lofty aisled interior with a braced timber roof. The aisle arcade is supported by squat red polished granite columns from Peterhead, which rise from contrasting ashlar bases and feature richly carved capitals depicting flowers, foliage, and fruit. The chancel is accessed by a flight of steps and includes a gilded wrought-iron screen, a richly decorated white marble altar and reredos, and stained glass windows. There are arcaded sedilia in the chancel, and the aisle windows contain stained glass by Baguley of Newcastle, created between 1887 and 1909. A Caen stone font with marble enrichment and a carved oak cover, originally from Christ Church in Lancaster Gate, London, which was demolished in 1977, is also present. The circular stone pulpit, made in 1936 by Davidson of Inverness, and decorative encaustic tiles on the floors by Minton, along with various mural memorials, add to the interior's character.

The burial ground surrounding the church is partially walled and features a simple entrance flanked by tooled rubble gate piers. Three grey granite foundation stones from the demolished Aberlour Orphanage are set by the entrance, along with a war memorial dedicated to the boys from the orphanage.