Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Lamington

Lamington, a village and a parish in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire. The village stands, 700 feet above sea-level, on the left bank of the Clyde, 6 ¼ miles SW by S of Biggar, 12 SE of Lanark, and 9 furlongs ENE of Lamington station (across the river) on the Caledonian, this being 10 ¼ miles S by E of Carstairs Junction, and 37 ¾ SW by S of Edinburgh. It was entitled by charter from Charles I. to hold a weekly market and two annual fairs, but now is a little country place, neat and pretty - a model village in its way having an inn and a post office under Biggar, with money order, savings' bank, and railway telegraph departments.

The parish, since 1608 comprising the ancient parishes of Wandell and Lamington, is bounded NW and N by Symington, NE and E by Culter, SE and S by Crawford, and W by Crawfordjohn and Wiston-Roberton. In outline rudely triangular, with northward apex, it has an utmost length from NNE to SSW of 6 ¾ miles, an utmost breadth from ENE to WSW of 5 ½ miles, and an area of 19, 918 ¾ acres, of which 98 ¾ are water. The Clyde flows 8 ¾ miles north-north-eastward along or close to all the western and north-western boundary; and among its eight little affluents from this parish are Wandell Burn, running 4 ¼ miles west-north-westward, and Lamington Burn 3 miles north-north-westward. At a cost of £2000 the Clyde was embanked here along its whole Lamington extent in 1835-36, when the bridge across it near the village, of two arches, each 53 feet in span, was built at a cost of £900. In the extreme N the surface sinks along the Clyde to 680 feet above sea-level, thence rising to 1614 feet at Lamington Hill, 1399 at Startup Hill, 1536 at Cowgill Rig, 1585 at Ewe Hill, 1894 at Duncangill Head, 1867 at Tewsgill Hill, and 1406 at Arbory Hill. Porphyry and greywacke are the prevailing rocks; and the soil is a deep rich loam or clay on the level holm-lands along the Clyde, on other arable lands is mainly of free and lightish yet kindly character, and on most of the hills is moorish or mossy. About 2186 acres are arable, 137 are under plantations, and nearly all the remainder is rough pasture. George Jardine (1742-1827), Professor of Logic in Glasgow University, was a native of Wandell. The Roman Watling Street, from Nithsdale into Clydesdale, ran close by the river Clyde; and camps, both Roman and native, occur in several localities, the most curious of them being that upon Arbory Hill. The `Bower of Wandell,' a fortalice crowning a rocky peninsula, washed on three sides by the Clyde, is almost level with the ground, and only a vault remains of Windgate House, towards the head of Cowgill or Keygill Glen; but the Tower of Lamington, 5 furlongs N of the village, is still represented by the lofty NW angle. Tradition assigns it to the days of Wallace, but its little projecting corner turret refers it rather to the 16th century. Hamilton of Wishaw described it about 1700 as ` an old house seated upon the river Clyde, near to the kirk, in a pleasant place, and well planted,' and it was occupied by the Baillies for nearly fifty years later, but about 1780 it was demolished by an ignorant factor to furnish building materials. That Marion Bradfute, wife of Sir William Wallace, was heiress of Lamington, and that their daughter transmitted her mother's rights to her husband, Sir William Baillie of Hoprig, are baseless traditions, for in 1368 Sir William Baillie, second of Hoprig, as son-in-law of Sir William Seton, obtained a charter of `Lambiston' barony. His seventeenth descendant - five times through heiressesis Alexander Dundas Ross Cochrane Baillie (b. 1816; suc. his mother in 1819), who was Conservative member for Bridport, Lanarkshire, Honiton, and the Isle of Wight at various periods from 1846 to 1880, in which latter year he was created Baron Lamington in the peerage of the United Kingdom. He holds 10, 833 acres in the shire, valued at £6327 per annum. His mansion, Lamington House, finely- seated on the hill-slope a little E of the village, is a modern Elizabethan edifice, with pleasant grounds. The Earl of Home is the other proprietor, the barony of Hartside or Wandell having passed from the Jardines to the Earl of Angus in 1617. (See Douglas Castle.) Lamington is in the presbytery of Biggar and synod of Lothian and Tweeddale; the living is worth £211. The parish church, St Ninian's, is an old building, with 300 sittings, a fine N Norman archway, and a bell bearing date 1647. Down to the repairs of 1828 it retained its `jougs' and `canty,' or place of repentance; and within its walls one cold rough day Robert Burns heard a sermon which called forth a stinging epigram. A private Episcopal church (1857; 70 sittings) is a pretty Early English edifice. The public school, with accommodation for 74 children, had (1881) an average attendance of 16, and a grant of £28, 16s. Valuation (1880) £8853, 11s., (1883) £7822, 8s. Pop. (1801) 375, (1831) 382, (1861) 380, (1871) 332, (1881) 316.—Ord. Sur., shs. 23, 24, 15, 16, 1865-64.


(F.H. Groome, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882-4); © 2004 Gazetteer for Scotland)

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "a village and a parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "populated places")
Administrative units: Lanarkshire ScoCnty
Place: Lamington

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