Churchyard, St Ninian's Church, Lamington

St Ninian's Church, Lamington, is a small Post-Reformation rectangular church of Grade B listed status. The present building dates from 1721, though it incorporates a 12th-century Norman doorway from an earlier church on the site. The church was substantially renovated in 1828 and again circa 1880.

The church is a 4-bay rectangular-plan building with pointed-arched windows to the sides and doorways to the gable ends. It features a prominent gabled stone bellcote with round-arched form, dentilled eaves, and a round-arched canopy supported on recessed pillars. A stone cross stands at the apex of the south gable. A carved First World War memorial is positioned within the blocked 12th-century Norman doorway, which retains its chevron-carved voussoirs. The roof is slate with circular ridge ventilators and ashlar coped skews. Cast-iron rainwater goods with decorative hoppers are fitted throughout.

The windows are margined with diamond-pane leaded lights and coloured glazing. The interior features a good, plain-rendered decorative scheme. A timber-panelled balcony on slender cast-iron columns occupies the east end, with a later timber-panelled pulpit at the west end. The ceiling is timber-boarded with combed decoration and decorative cast-iron ventilator grilles. Brass light fittings and hinged ventilator hoods are set to the side walls. The doors feature pointed arch panels. An inscription reading "Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness" is painted in decorative scroll above the pulpit. A large classical wall monument to Lady Ross Baillie is notable within the interior.

The 1828 renovation was extensive and costly (£300 for both the separate Wandel and Lamington parishes). It raised the building's height, introduced doors at each gable end for each parish with wrap-around external stairs leading to corresponding internal balconies facing one another, and added a pulpit with canopy to the south side. The larger pointed-arched windows date from this campaign. Circa 1880, under the direction of Lord Lamington, the west balcony was removed and the pulpit relocated to the west end. A small 4-pane window was added to the south elevation at this time, and the external stairs were also removed.

The church's bell is documented in session records as having been installed by the Laird of Lamington and dated 1647, made by Joannes Monteith. The belfry was rebuilt during the circa 1880 works. The original Monteith bell is now held in Moat Park Museum in Biggar; the existing bell dates from 1929. The church was noted in Groome's Gazetteer as "St Ninians Parish Church with 300 sittings, a fine Norman archway and a bell dated 1647".

The church is sited within a rare circular graveyard enclosure, an unusual and distinctive plan form. The graveyard boundary comprises rubble walls with curved cappings that retain higher ground to the interior. The graveyard contains a fine selection of headstones, predominantly from the 19th century but including some good examples from the 18th century and possibly earlier. A notable cast-iron tomb to the Reverend Charles Hore (died 1862) with cast-iron railings is among the burials.

The church represents a good surviving example of a small Post-Reformation rectangular church in its original plan form, prominently sited within a rare raised circular graveyard. As of 2009, it was used as a store facility for Biggar Museums Trust.