St Michael's Roman Catholic Chapel, Tomintoul

St Michael's Roman Catholic Chapel, dated 1837, was designed by George Mathewson of Dundee and later altered. It is a cruciform Gothic church constructed of harled walls with granite margins and dressings. The church is oriented east to west, with the main entrance originally in the west gable, though this has been reconfigured internally and now accessed via an entrance porch in the south-east re-entrant angle. The west gable features a pointed-head doorway with a fanlight and a plaque above, set within a slightly advanced bay. Flanking this doorway are long, narrow, pointed-head windows, and above, a further window. A stumpy gabled belfry, with angle pilasters, stone crosses, and louvred vents, tops the west gable. Some of the windows contain lattice-pane glazing.

A three-storey presbytery is incorporated into the eastern arm of the cross. A projecting glazed timber porch conceals the entrance to the presbytery in the centre of the two-bay east gable, which is lit by pointed-head sash windows. A small, single-storey gabled wing is attached to the north-east. The roof is covered with Tomintoul slate.

The interior is a simple, galleried space that has been re-cast and altered in 1939. Low rubble walls enclose the interior, and a burial ground lies to the west. The west entrance is flanked by simple gatepiers. A plaque above the west door reads: “Deo sub tutela B. Maria Virginis et B. Michaelis Archangeli Dedicata MDCCCXXXVII” – dedicated to God under the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary and St Michael the Archangel, 1837.

The church was built on the site of an earlier church constructed in 1788. The building remains in ecclesiastical use.