I came across this article in the Northern Star August 1905. I recognised the property immediately - Braehead House, Captain Hunter lived here in the 1830's - but I never knew it had been a Convent during the early 1900's. Below is a transcript of the article which accompanied the sketch. I've not found any follow up articles about the Convent. Eventually the property, which included two fields to the right of it, was sold to the Council around 1935. They knocked it down to make way for Calderpark Street and the construction of council houses. If you are unsure of its location below is a map which shows it adjacent to the former Manse for the United Free Church (West Church) which today is known as West Dene (which was also the former home of Dr Waterson). Also below is a photograph of the property which may have been taken around 1905 to mark its conversion to a convent.

Transcript of the article:-

More than once we referred in these columns to the pre-eminently Christian work done by the Sisters of the Sacred Heart in St Mary of Egypt's Home for Houseless women, at 12 Charlotte Street, Glasgow. Scarcely three years ago an old block of houses at that address was overhauled and placed at the disposal of three of the Sisters, who have since held open door for the harbourless. In that refuge, which opened from a slummy yard entered by a dingy close in one of the most insalubrious quarters of the town, there was always an air of brightness which seemed to have been caused by the cheerful disposition which the Sisters seemed to have created in those who, a few weeks before, might have felt that The World was Tired of Them and Had No Place in it for Them. So many sought the refuge of that haven that the rooms were always taxed to their utmost, and many had to be transferred to shelters in other parts of the country. Quite recently, however, fortune favoured the Sisters and those interested in their work. Braehead House, Lochwinnoch, as was already announced here, was purchased and set apart for a shelter for the girls who might seek the protection of the nuns, who have now taken possession of it.

Braehead House, which will probably be called St Mary of Egypt's, is a substantial villa, containing about thirteen apartments. It stands at the top of a hill to the north of the town, which it overlooks, and from it a wide view is obtained of the surrounding country. The house stands in a pretty garden, in which there is a profusion of flowers and plants. Behind the house there is another large garden and attached to the house are two fields, one of which would provide a site for a building equal to the largest Catholic school in the city. There will be three Sisters in charge of the Home for the present, and a considerable number of girls can be accommodated in the house as it is now. Probably, in the course of a few years.

It will be necessary to build an Institution for the girls themselves, and if that be the case the Sisters will not be hampered for ground. The gardens will provide occupation for the girls for a time, and no doubt healthy work in the open-air, a comfortable shelter, and the kindly counsel of the Sisters will help the girls to forget how cruel city life is for those who have neither home nor means. The house in Charlotte Street will still be retained, and will serve as a reception house. The aim of the Sisters will be to make the home self-supporting, but in the meantime they are dependent upon others. The new Home will give ample opportunity to the girls for doing laundry work, necdlework, etc., and by means of their earning from their work they may be able to defray the cost of the maintenance of the New Institution. Father Bruon-Geddes has been appointed chaplain to the institution temporarily. The house is in Kilbirnie Parish, but Kilbirnie is a considerable distance off, and so Mass will be said in a little oratory that is being fitted up in the convent. There are about twenty Catholic families in Lochwinnoch, and the members of these families will be permitted to hear Mass at the convent.

It is unwise sometimes to attempt prophecy, but what has just been started at Lochwinnoch tempts one to look ahead. The Archbishop of Glasgow, a few days ago, at the opening of St Luke's Church, declared that wherever the Church preached the Gospel to the poor, the Church had grown strong. At the new convent at Lochwinnoch the Sisters of the Sacred Heart are devoting themselves to the poor – they are harbouring the harbourless, comforting the comfortless, encouraging the faint-hearted. Mass will be said for those whom the Sisters have under their care, they will have the Gospel preached to them, others besides them will have the advantage of hearing the Gospel preached to them oftener than before, some may hear Mass frequently whose age or infirmity may have made that possible only at special times, others, too, knowing that it will be possible to discharge their spiritual obligations with greater facility than formerly will take up their residence in that neighbourhood, and it will surprise no one if the Shelter for Houseless Girls should prove to be the beginning of a Catholic parish at Lochwinnoch.