A LOCAL photographer has shared new pictures of the world-renowned former St Peter’s Seminary in Cardross – as local residents wait for news on the latest plans to breathe new life into the famous ruin.
Built in the late 1960s to train candidates for the Roman Catholic priesthood, the St Peter’s structure, designed by Glasgow architects Andy MacMillan and Isi Metzstein of the renowned Gillespie, Kidd and Coia architectural practice, is one of only 42 post-war buildings in Scotland to enjoy A-listed status – the highest level of protection. It’s also regarded as a world-leading example of modernist architecture in the Brutalist style.
Dàibhidh Tait probed the ruins on the northern edge of the village with his camera recently and described the site as having “a horrible atmosphere”.
He said: “It’s a total eyesore. I was glad to leave it behind.
“Some of the graffiti art is amazing but apart from that, it reminded me of a concentration camp.”
READ MORE: New owners for former St Peter's Seminary in Cardross as church hands over site
A new charity, the Kilmahew Education Trust, took over ownership of the site from the Archdiocese of Glasgow in July of last year, with Trust director Stuart Cotton saying the organisation wanted to “develop [the building] as an asset for the local community while respecting the unique archaeological status of the iconic structure”.
Following its closure as a seminary in 1980, the site was briefly used as a drug rehabilitation centre before that, too, closed in 1984.
Numerous attempts to save the property came to nothing, and high-profile proposals to turn the site into a major arts and cultural venue collapsed in June 2018 when arts organisation NVA, which had been spearheading attempts to save the building, announced that it was closing down.
The Scottish Government turned down a request from the Archdiocese in 2019 to take the building into “state care”, saying it could not justify the costs involved and the risks to the public purse, and the future for the property looked bleak until the church announced the transfer of ownership to the trust last summer.
Its architectural significance and many years of neglect have also made the site popular with 'urban explorers' despite safety and security warnings.
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