Trinity Chapel, Lamington

Trinity Chapel, Lamington

Trinity Chapel is a small neo-Gothic estate chapel built in 1857 by architect John Henderson for Lord Lamington (Alexander Baillie Cochrane), who had inherited and begun rebuilding the Lamington Estate from 1844. A memorial chapel addition was constructed circa 1890 following Lord Lamington's death. The chapel remains in ecclesiastical use and is prominently sited on the road into Lamington Village, to which it is architecturally and historically related.

The main chapel is rectangular in plan with Gothic styling. Both east and west gables feature tripartite pointed-arched tracery with quatrefoils above. A pointed-arched gabled open entrance porch projects from the north-west corner. The roofline extends lower to the south-east, forming a vestry with tripartite and single trefoil windows, and a shouldered octagonal stone stack. The later two-bay memorial chapel addition to the north-east corner displays stepped skew-putt details, hoodmoulds to gable windows, and blind shield carved stone detail to its apex. The walls are built of coursed whinstone with drove sandstone quoins and window margins. The roof is finished with graded grey slates and stone skews.

The interior preserves a good, simple neo-Gothic decorative scheme with plain rendered walls, timber pews, and a boarded timber ceiling. A white marble font dates to 1883, as does a stone pulpit with carved tracery details engraved "Go the glory of God and in memory of C L M". The chancel floor features encaustic tiling from circa 1870, with a tiled frieze to the reredos depicting the Last Supper and inscribed "Glory to God in the highest, on Earth Peace". A shallow pointed double archway with central paired stone columns leads to the later tomb to the north. The vestry is plainly boarded with a fireplace. Two carved crest stones inside the church are from the now-demolished Lamington House.

The interior has been enhanced over the years with gifts including stained glass windows (the first in the district since the Reformation), a Caen stone pulpit gifted by the Duke of Rutland, and the encaustic tile chancel floor gifted by Lady Scarborough (Anabella Drummond, wife of Lord Lamington and sister of the donor). An earlier painted reredos was replaced by the tiled frieze. A finely coloured sample of the original decorative painted stencil scheme survives behind a painting in the chancel. A contemporary description in Groome's Gazetteer of 1882 notes "70 sittings in a pretty early English edifice".

The gatepiers and gates are notable features. The squared sandstone gatepiers have chamfered arises and corniced domed caps, reclaimed from a house in Biggar when the gateway was resited away from the main road. The cast-iron gates, featuring circle details at low level, were originally from the former Moat Park Manse, designed by architect John L. Murray, and were gifted by one of Lord Lamington's nephews, a British Ambassador to Munich.

Historical Context

The chapel was commissioned as part of Lord Lamington's wider estate improvements. In 1838, Alexander Cochrane, Member of Parliament and grandson of the Earl of Dundonald, inherited the Baillie family estate of Lamington and adopted its name, becoming Alexander Baillie Cochrane. He was created Lord Lamington in 1883. Following his marriage to Anabella Drummond in the 1840s, he began extensive rebuilding of the estate, including large additions to the existing shooting lodge in Elizabethan style, which formed Lamington House (now demolished). He also undertook a programme of improvements transforming Lamington Village from scattered bothies into a planned estate village, with building works extending from the 1840s to the 1870s. The village buildings survive and maintain their designed character.

Drawings held in the Biggar Archive, sent to builder Robert Ritchie of Lamington in 1856, document details of the chapel's stonework. The tomb chapel to the north-east was built in 1890 on the death of the first Lord Lamington. During its construction, a temporary tomb was erected in the churchyard, where his daughter, Countess Vitelleschi, now lies.

The chapel underwent refurbishment to its exterior and interior stonework in 2009.