Behind Cupar’s Bonnygate, by East Moat Hill, enclosed within a high wall, there is a forlorn, now unroofed, ‘TEMPLE’. This Category B listed building has survived from the mid-18th century. It is now registered as a Building At Risk.
This description of the ‘TEMPLE’ is given by Historic Environment Scotland:
“1761-66. Hexagonal single-storey building, dressed ashlar to front with droved ashlar flanks and rubble north face. Arched door to south with voussoirs and thin belt at eaves. Former door to north west with external stair (removed mid 20th century) and window to south east long since blocked. Later wooded flattish roof with asbestos covering. Stone-paved floor and wooden seating on 5 sides (partly removed). Approached up steps from north terrace with bee-boles. Deeds held by Owners.”
The ‘TEMPLE’ appears on this 1830 map of Cupar:
And here in the first large scale Ordnance Survey map:
The impression one gets [going by these old maps and the few recorded details that are available] is that this garden TEMPLE was part of a designed 18th century landscape and that it, and the wall that surrounds it, have out-survived nearly all other elements of this special place.
CANMORE provides these images of the ‘TEMPLE’ taken in 1975:1761
This is East Moat Hill:
And here are some more recent images of the ‘TEMPLE’:
