St Peter's Seminary was built from 1961-1966 in the woods of the Kilmahew Estate, above the village of Cardross. It was designed by the architects Gillespie, Kidd & Coia to replace the old seminary in Bearsden, Glasgow, which had burned down some years previously. The new building, in bold modernist architectural style, was built around the old Kilmahew House forming a quadrangle, the intention being for the old house to provide staff accommodation while the new building would provide other facilities including a convent block, classrooms, and a large chapel.
The building was beset by maintenance problems, including water entry, from the start, and due to declining numbers entering the priesthood, it never reached its full capacity of 100 students. In the early 80s the seminary closed and the building became a drug rehabilitation centre, but this was also short-lived, and by the 90s the building was derelict. The old Kilmahew House was badly damaged by a fire in 1995 and had to be demolished, but the vast concrete seminary building, now category A listed, still stands. Despite various proposals for its restoration over the years, it remains abandoned.
Got a fright when we first entered and were greeted by someone coming down the steps towards us! But thankfully it was just another explorer who'd beaten us to it. The place is now very, very trashed indeed... mostly just a concrete shell, with the occasional fixture or piece of wooden cladding remaining, and the kitchen block doesn't even have a roof anymore. But it's such an unusual building and in a very nice setting that I felt it was still worth seeing.
(I made the stupid mistake of forgetting to fully charge my camera battery before this trip... as a result it didn't last as long as I'd have liked, especially with taking so many long exposures. So no pictures of the boiler room and other places I didn't find until near the end. Ah well, you live and learn).
From the outside:
Passage underneath the main level:
Most of the interior fittings had gone, but there was this washing machine in the basement:
Looking towards the altar in the main chapel:
The main staircases:
Upper level walkway. The openings on the left would once have been student rooms:
Remains of the kitchen block from above:
Looking over to the convent block from the top level of the main block:
Central hallway:
The building was beset by maintenance problems, including water entry, from the start, and due to declining numbers entering the priesthood, it never reached its full capacity of 100 students. In the early 80s the seminary closed and the building became a drug rehabilitation centre, but this was also short-lived, and by the 90s the building was derelict. The old Kilmahew House was badly damaged by a fire in 1995 and had to be demolished, but the vast concrete seminary building, now category A listed, still stands. Despite various proposals for its restoration over the years, it remains abandoned.
Got a fright when we first entered and were greeted by someone coming down the steps towards us! But thankfully it was just another explorer who'd beaten us to it. The place is now very, very trashed indeed... mostly just a concrete shell, with the occasional fixture or piece of wooden cladding remaining, and the kitchen block doesn't even have a roof anymore. But it's such an unusual building and in a very nice setting that I felt it was still worth seeing.
(I made the stupid mistake of forgetting to fully charge my camera battery before this trip... as a result it didn't last as long as I'd have liked, especially with taking so many long exposures. So no pictures of the boiler room and other places I didn't find until near the end. Ah well, you live and learn).
From the outside:
Passage underneath the main level:
Most of the interior fittings had gone, but there was this washing machine in the basement:
Looking towards the altar in the main chapel:
The main staircases:
Upper level walkway. The openings on the left would once have been student rooms:
Remains of the kitchen block from above:
Looking over to the convent block from the top level of the main block:
Central hallway: