Lochwinnoch is a town in the council area and also historical region of Renfrewshire in the west central Lowlands of Scotland. Lying on the financial institutions of Castle Semple Loch as well as the River Calder, Lochwinnoch is primarily a household dormitory village offering neighboring city centres such as Glasgow and Paisley. Its population in 2001 was 2628. The Town also provides its name to a civil church of some 50 sq mi (130 km2) of the surrounding countryside, including the neighboring town of Howwood. The parish boundaries 7 others: Beith, Kilbarchan, Kilbirnie, Kilmacolm, Largs, Neilston as well as Paisley. Today, Lochwinnoch primarily acts as a domestic town, in addition to a satellite to the significant city of Glasgow. In 1972, a variety of buildings in the town were brought within a recently defined Lochwinnoch Conservation Area as an area of special building relevance for planning and setting purposes administered by the regional authority. Lochwinnoch Primary School, the only institution in the village, celebrated its centenary in 2005. In 2003 it was the centre of a significant alien big cat discovery scare. Children were kept inside during break times, and also a cops helicopter was generated to search for the animal.