Rattray Parish Church, High Street, Rattray

Rattray Parish Church, dated 1820 and designed by William Stirling of Dunblane, with a restoration in 1879, is a rectangular-plan church accompanied by an Italianate tower. The church is constructed of dark, snecked whinstone rubble, with some Aberdeen bond, and has contrasting droved red sandstone ashlar margins and quoin strips; the east elevation is rendered. The building features round-headed windows with simple tracery, pilaster strips, voussoirs, and chamfered reveals, along with dividing band courses and raised margins to the tower.

The west-facing gable features a projecting entrance tower at the centre, flanked by windows, one of which is blocked and replaced by a corniced World War I memorial. A low, M-gabled session house partially obscures a window on the left. The tower is five stages high, with a datestone on the west side and a panelled timber door on the south. The second stage has windows on the west, north (blocked), and south sides; small square windows are located on the north, south (blocked), and west of the third stage. A clock face is located on the north and west sides of the fourth stage, with a removed clock face on the south. A tall belfry with louvered openings and a weathervane-finialled swept Italianate roof tops the tower.

The south elevation has four regularly spaced tall windows with a datestone at the centre, and the north elevation mirrors this with three windows and pilaster strips. The east elevation is rendered and includes two tall windows (one blocked, one partially blocked) flanking an altered central window, and a low, piended projection with a catslide roof and brick stack to the right. A panelled timber door is located on the return to the left.

The church has diamond-pattern leaded glazing, some of which is coloured, and grey slate roofing. Ashlar-coped skewes are on the west, and there are overhanging eaves on the east. A square-section cast-iron downpipe with a decorative rainwater hopper is located on the southeast side.

The interior retains its original layout, featuring a three-sided gallery supported by cast-iron columns, facing a timber pulpit with ogee-canopied octagonal design, steep stairs, decorative ironwork balusters, and a gilded eagle atop a timber finial. Fixed timber pews are present both on the ground floor and in the gallery, along with panelled gallery fronts and dadoes. Plain cornices adorn the ceiling. Memorials include a bronze plaque to Donald Cargill of Hatton of Rattray, a marble tablet commemorating three generations of the Herdman family, Ministers of Rattray parish, and a carved stone memorial with heraldic emblems, a Latin inscription and initials 'MSR', dated 1623-67. A weathered 1710 gravestone, known as the 'Boat Stone', commemorates the last ferry woman of The Ericht with a Latin inscription. The Stewart Memorial Windows and Communion Table include a window to the right of the pulpit depicting 'The Good Samaritan' (Luke 10:33) and a window to the left depicting 'Water of Life', commemorating John and Alexander Stewart of New Rattray.