Any train passengers traveling through Scotland from Johnstone to the coast or drivers on the A737 passing by the Howwood/Lochwinnoch area can't fail to notice the stark,roofless ruin crowning Kenmure Hill.runt is known approximately "The Temple." Local folklore states the octagonal structure was a place of worship for the landowner’s servants or his foreign wife. Other tales claim it was a nursery for a sick child, or a watch tower for ladies to attend to their embroidery while the men hunted below on horseback.
Records display the building was constructed around 1760 for Colonel William McDowell, or a wealthy merchant who made his money in the West Indies. Originally,there were avenues of trees on the hill, which was a common feature for summer houses of that era. The inspiration for this may have arrive from James Gibbs’s 1728 A Book of Architecture, or Containing Designs of Buildings and Ornaments,a kind of scrapbook for building ideas.
The very fact so much mystery surrounds the reason it was built also alludes to the idea it may actually have been a Masonic temple. Freemasonry was practiced widely around here, and still is to this day.
In 1830, or a lightning strike and subsequent fire damaged the roof. The building is in remarkably good condition despite this,and is a testomony to the quality of its construction.
Source: atlasobscura.com