Exterior
The church is cruciform in plan, with nave, chancel, transept arms and a tall square tower. It was built in coursed, roughly-squared granite blocks and has a slate roof.
The west gable of the church has a small doorway contained within a small lean-to porch. Above is a large pointed-arch window with a hoodmould and interlocking tracery. There is a group of three small lancet windows in the gablehead above a stringcourse.
Attached to the south is the square tower. The southern face of the tower has a deeply-recessed pointed-arch doorway, which is reached by 5 stone steps. The double-leaf timber doors have elaborate plate metal hinges. There are a number of small windows in the tower and large pointed-arch belfry openings with Y-tracery below a simple battlemented parapet. The east face of the tower has a small stair turret projection with slit windows.
The south elevation of the church overlooks Bieldside and North Deeside Road. The nave has pointed-arch windows with Y-tracery above a stringcourse. The south transept has corner buttresses, slit windows and a large south-facing window with intersecting tracery.
The east end of the church has the slightly narrower chancel with a stained glass pointed-arch window. The window is framed above and below by stepped stringcourses built into the fabric. At the junction of the chancel and south transept is a small vestry with a small door and rectangular windows.
The north elevation is largely hidden by the steep slope of the site. The stonework on this elevation is also slightly cruder. There are four pointed-arch windows along the nave and a small gabled porch towards the east end, which forms a transept of sorts to complete the cruciform plan.
Interior
The interior of the church is fairly simple and the nave is fairly narrow, although it has a fine wooden wagon-roof. The original wooden pews are in place and divided by a central aisle. At the west end, beneath the gallery, is a separate room, created by the installation of glass and wooden walls and automatic sliding doors. A multi-use space in the gallery above this room is accessed by a side stair to the north.
The east end of the church is dominated by the chancel with its red-painted walls. The wooden altar is framed by an elaborate wooden reredos and the stained glass east window above. In front of the altar are wooden chancel rails and to the side is a lectern and a large Bishop's chair. There is also a granite screen of 1849 (by William Butterfield), which was originally in St Ninian's Cathedral, Perth. To the south of the chancel, in the transept, is a pipe organ with a small door leading off to the vestry.
The church has a fine stained glass east window above the altar, which depicts the crucifixion of Christ. There is a stained glass window in the east wall of the south transept, which is older than the church (1838) and was taken from St Andrews Church, Aberdeen. There is another stained glass memorial window in the north elevation which shows the birth of Christ.
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Background Photo © M J Richardson (cc-by-sa/2.0)