Huntly, Chapel Street, St Margaret's Roman Catholic Church

St Margaret's RC Church, 1834, Rt Revd James Kyle. The ornate Spanish baroque tower (three stages - console scrolls at base, on portico-like ashlar front, rising through square tower to concavesided belfry topped by console crown) throws out an exotic invitation which is not denied by the saucer-domed interior of the rubble-built octagon behind it. Beneath its lunette windows are seven contemporary Spanish religious paintings given by John Gordon of Wardhouse

(qv) whose Spanish connections account for this efflorescent building. It is thought that William Robertson may have assisted with the working drawings, judging by the anta capitals of the tower; c.1902 altarpiece and stencilled decoration.

The original neo-Greek altarpiece is in the adjacent corbie-stepped, rough coursed granite Presbytery House, a solidly impressive twostoreyed rectangle. Five and four tall window pediments rise above the wallheads.

Taken from "Aberdeenshire: Donside and Strathbogie - An Illustrated Architectural Guide", by Ian Shepherd, 2006. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk

NJ54SW 48.00 52838 40172

Church [NAT]

OS (GIS) MasterMap, November 2009.

NJ54SW 48.01 NJ 52828 40159 Presbytery

NMRS REFERENCE:

Date: 1834. Rev. James Kyle

(Undated) information in NMRS.