The following year Lorimer converted the Old Meal Mill by the Dargavel Burn, where Holms lived while the new house was underway.

The former stable or bothy block, now known as the Miller's Tower, bears a stone inscribed with the date "1694", with the letters "DL" standing for "damned lie".

[3][5] Peter Anderson Graham, editor of Country Life, when shown a photograph of the building believed that it did in fact date to the 17th century.

[5] The gate lodges and stable blocks are topped with stone monkeys, (allegedly a self aimed joke by Holmes on the Victorian idiom where 'Monkey on the roof' meant to owe a large amount of money) hence earning the local nickname "The Monkey House" [6] The walled garden and other planting in the grounds was designed by Lorimer under the guidance of Gertrude Jekyll.

[5] When Holms died in debt in 1938, Formakin was sold to the Bradford-born entrepreneur Albert Ernest Pickard, owner of the Britannia Panopticon among other Glasgow ventures.