A rubble walled churchyard containing many good 18th and 19th century gravestones. The graveyard also includes the nave of the former church, and the crypts of the medieval monastery.
St Ninian is said to have founded a stone church here in the late 4th or early 5th century. Several Northumbrian Bishops are recorded in the 8th century, thereafter apparently lapsed. Bishopric revived by Fergus of Galloway c1128 as suffragean of York, possibly as minster church. Premonstratensian canons introduced either by Fergus (d1161) or by Bishop Christian in 1177. After 1515, priory held by commendators, granted to bishop of Galloway 1605, confirmed by Parliament 1612. The nave was transformed for reformed episcopacy in the early 17th century, and remodelled in 1635. Diocese of Galloway, deanery of Farines. The church, not listed is in Bagimond, and had possibly been annexed to Whithorn Priory from its foundation c1175, although thjere is no evidence until 1454. Both parsonage and vicarage continued to be annexed at the Reformation, the cure being a vicar pensionary. Excavations around the hill, on which the church is sat, revealed a complex sequence of settlement, from unspecified prehistoric times up to the early 20th century. The excavated structures included roundhouses, Early Christian shrines, a portion of the Northumbrian monastery, a Hiberno-Norse urban zone, Early Christian and medieval gravefields, a Commendator`s house/manse, and a possible stone circle.
The current standing church was built in 1822 by James Laurie, James McQueen and Anthy McMillan, incorporating into its eastern wall the masonry of the medieval priory dormitory. The tower was added in the mid-19th century. The two east windows with stained glass, were gifted by the daughter of Gemmel Hutcheson RSA in memory of her father
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