By Castle Semple, Temple On Kenmuir Hill is a Grade B listed building in the Renfrewshire local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 10 June 1971. Look-out tower.

By Castle Semple, Temple On Kenmuir Hill

WRENN ID
empty-niche-evening
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Renfrewshire
Constituency
Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP: Johanna Baxter (Lab)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
10 June 1971
Type
Look-out tower
OS grid reference
NS 385 604
Coordinates
55.80991, -4.57821
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

The building is a roofless, two-storey octagonal Classical look-out tower, dating from around 1776, located prominently at the summit of Kenmuir Hill, near Castle Semple. It is constructed from coursed, stugged and pinned stone, featuring polished ashlar margins. The tower has a raised base course, band courses, and a cornice with raised margins. There are rectangular, blocked window openings on the ground floor, along with an entrance door on the south side that has a sloping cornice above it. Each face of the tower has key-stoned, around-arched window openings, with a taller opening situated above the entrance door. A single wallhead stack is present.

Inside, as seen in 2011, the interior is made of rubble, and there is a fireplace opening in the wall of the upper storey.

Local climate

By Castle Semple, Temple On Kenmuir Hill sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,350 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 96% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 92% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 46 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 88% of listed buildings. Of these, 25 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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  • Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
  • Flood risk assessment
  • Radon risk assessment
  • Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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