Balerno Parish Church, 1 Johnsburn Road, Balerno

Balerno Parish Church, built in 1888 to the design of James Fairley, is a rectangular-plan Gothic church situated on Johnsburn Road in Balerno. The church is constructed from stugged, squared, and snecked sandstone with ashlar margins and dressings. A base course and string course run horizontally, and the window reveals are stop-chamfered.

The northeast elevation is symmetrical with three bays. The central section features a gabled block with two stages, flanked by full-height gabletted buttresses. The returns of the gabled transept bays are visible on either side. Stone steps with a low parapet wall lead to a round-arched central doorway with a sharply-cut chamfered moulding and triangulated hoodmould with label stops. A boarded door, fitted with cast-iron hinges, is set within the arch. Narrow lancet windows flank the door. A large, bipartite, plate tracery window sits at the upper stage, also with a hoodmould and an arrowslit at the gablehead, culminating in a cross final at the apex. The northwest elevation features four bays with a gabled porch projecting to the right. A full-height gabled transept bay is advanced to the left, with a round window below the gablehead. Three bays of the nave are to the right, divided by gabletted buttresses, the central bay featuring paired lancets. The southwest elevation displays a gable with a half-piended porch/vestry addition to the left. A rose window is at the gablehead, flanked by lancets. A bipartite window is visible on the northeast elevation, featuring a stone mullion and a six-pane over four-pane sash and case window.

The southeast elevation has a gabled transept bay to the right, with steps leading down to a basement boiler room, enclosed by cast-iron railings. A rectangular window is at the first stage, and a round-headed window is at the upper stage. The nave bays to the left are divided by gabletted buttresses, with paired lancets at the centre.

Internally, the church has a simple design. It features a kingpost roof with additional arch-braces, oak dadoes, and a simple gallery at the northeast. The gallery incorporates leaded glass with a stained-glass border. Stained glass is present in the rose window at the southwest, and on a central door, where the inscription 'In his will is our peace' is displayed. The altar table is located at the southwest end, set against an arch with gold colonettes. The seating is made of pitch-pine. A baptismal font, dedicated to the memory of Peter Jackson, who died in 1934, is also present. A decorative arcaded balustrade/parapet lines the gallery. All windows have square-pane leaded glass with stained-glass borders. The roof is covered with grey slate with ashlar coping to the skews. A shouldered wallhead stack is present on the southeast elevation, and a smaller stack is to the right of the apex on the southwest elevation.

The church is enclosed by a boundary wall constructed of stugged, squared sandstone with ashlar slab coping and geometric railings.