St Peter's Seminary, Cardross

zolita1908 · St Peter's Seminary, Cardross

Right I'm taking the lead and asking if anyone wants to go or a wander round. I wanna do it before it gets too mucky and slippy.

Anyone volunteering???

Fjord

Not been up there for a few years so count me in

ex-tobester

I might be able to do the 11th

Stuball

BBQ on the Altar?

zolita1908

well you can freeze doin it,,,actually no i'm a cook freak,,you carry the stuff, i'll cook it

Stuball

Anyone want to help me find the secret gardens? Probably nothing to see, but thats not the point :)

zolita1908

aye i'm up for that

falseface

Ronnie · Yes, indeedy, thanks James. And I *might* be free on 11/11/07.

zolita1908

Good Ronnie, hope you are free!

zolita1908

Is 11am ok for everyone on Sunday???

The weather is to be overcast but dry. We can meet at the main Gatehouse before walking up.

Ronnie

I'm really sorry, but I am now unfree on Sunday.
Maybe the next time

james73

Neither am I - roped into helping my sister move house.

Who the fcuk decided on a sunday anyway?

James H

ex-tobester

So here's the list so far

Zolita
Tobester
Stu?

Anyone else

ex-tobester

Few from today

Like bloody buses, wait ages for one, 3 come along at once

Lineup?

Tingly feet?

ex-tobester

'Im sorry, but your car failed its MOT, it had faulty brake lights'

Nature wins (top of the stairs)

The Monks

Fjord

Mind the Gap

Fjord

zolita1908

nice work for a norwegian

Stuball

zolita1908

Well if you fell I wasn't catchin you!

Found these two weird ppl while I was there

zolita1908

I just found this on the memory card,,,,it kept me laughing

Forgive me father for i have sinned

HollowHorn

So, what did youse think? Impressed?

zolita1908

I love the place, I used to live close by and have been more than a few times. But maybe I'm just weird!

Poor place is looking worse though, but hey maybe the new owners will do something great

ex-tobester

You are weird Zos, my 4th visit i love the place, better now ive seen the garden

james73

zolita1908

no comment

ex-tobester

Haw ill slap[ the back of ur legs for that.

BTW send me the bill for the repair Zos

falseface

ffs. wheres the ugly stick now

Fast Eddie

Just made it here at the weekend. Very interesting, both the building and seeing another group there who turned out to be a family (complete with 6 or 8 year old child). Must be a local family attraction, nice to see them starting young though. :)

Much better condition than i expected having seen glasgow zoo after only a few years.

some pictures up on flickr.

cybers

wee minx

St Peters Seminary

Altar

Arches

Columns

Shambles

Wall

Stuball

That last picture has me wondering.... where about is it? Curious posts in the wall with an conduit behind it. Jeeze, I've been there so many times and still see new bits

wee minx

jings.... can't remember

, keep thinking I was on the outside taking that one.

Alex Glass

Great photos Minx

Stuball

Have you any idea how bloody heavy that thing is? Took 3 of me :)

Scary

Brilliant Stu

wee minx

That is so good Stu

Digitographer

Fab. But if you added another ten of you, you coulda recreated the Last Supper! lol ..

cybers

Hoi Put that feckin pool table back....

Digitographer

Having always been desperate to visit St Peters, I finally took a trip to Cardross at the weekend. The place was fairly easy to find; I walked up Carman Road and saw what I guessed was the entrance, a large fence on the left of the road, past the golf course, with a few thoughtfully placed large gaps at either side. Then it was a walk up through the woods, following the path. By this point I thought I was (literally) on the wrong track until I finally turned a corner and there it was.

Going inside was, initially at least, a bit creepy - primarily because I had no idea who or what I might find there. As it turned out, in the several hours I was there, I didn't see another soul, living or dead. No neds, jakies or yoof teams to be found anywhere. Thankfully. The real concern was the state of the place - what a mess! My footing was very careful the entire time, for fear of going through a floor. As noted elsewhere, the concrete facade is not as solid as it once was - on the top floor, the balustrade surrounding the external gallery is coming away from the building and moves if you touch it, which wasn't really such a good sign. That and the lack of flooring in various parts reminded me that falling five floors onto concrete really wasn't to be recommended. It was odd seeing photos of the college taken in 2003 - the degree of damage since then is astonishing. The teaching block roof is almost entirely caved in and that made entering that part of the site impossible. Also, the convent roof has collapsed, making that unsafe also. Well, when I say 'unsafe', I suppose I mean 'more unsafe' - the whole place is quite treacherous if you don't keep your eyes open. Particularly with all the water that has collected in various places. I initially thought Coia and Co had decided a swimming pool in the main Chapel was a good idea. Sadly, the Altar has been badly damaged, heavily covered in graffiti and is badly chipped.

Up on the top floor of the main building, you get a much better idea of what the cells would have been like - the fixtures are still present in a few, with concealed lighting and a whole TWO electrical sockets in each one. And one room was painted a lovely shade of orange. It's a pity so much of the original wood (along with the skylights and anything else covered in copper) was missing. All the same, the rooms were clearly fairly small. And I read online from one former occupant that the whole place was exceptionally cold and draughty and not particularly pleasant to live in, no matter how many awards it may have won. The views from the top of the building were amazing. It was only after the visit, when I did a bit more research on the net, that I discovered there was originally a dry moat and a bridge - I had seen the thick chain where the bridge is, but it made little sense at the time. If you do visit and feel the urge to visit the upper floors, don't use the central interior staircase - use the fire stairs at the far end of the building, which give safer access to all the floors. Talking of which, I had to laugh that the fire stairs encircle the boiler and chimney - which, you would imagine, would have been the most likely place for any fire to have started, making the stairs a little redundant.

All in all, I'm very glad that I went and saw the college - despite believing that concrete is ugly, it is thanks to the use of so much concrete that the shell of the building remains standing. I can't help thinking that the Church has no particular interest in the place and would probably be quite happy if it just fell down one day. It can't be demolished, various fires have caused only partial damage, and there is the question of what can you actually *do* with the place now? Not very much, really, I suspect. It was built for a particular purpose and to make it at all useable for anything else would cost a fortune; and it's too far out of the way to make that realistic. Which is a pity.

As a recent article in the Lennox Herald (2 January 2009) reports -

mrsam

Spiral logo like thing

Metal Water

"What happens If I press That Lever"

Rusty Banister

'Torch of Destiny'

Spiral Staircase

Gatehouse to big house (now sadly gone

)

Taken 20-06-2007

Mr Sam

*edit* More pictures here

Fjord

Pity about the gatehouse there was potential for grand designs in that building although the river running through the basement might have been a major project on it's own.

Stuball

Stuball

The Hidden Gardens

mrsam · Never found the hidden gardens

Blimey this site just gives 'n' gives

james73

Mr Sam, I cant see any of you pictures from last night.

James H

mrsam

Sorry had a clean out of photobucket account will rectify be re uploading if you want!!

Anything specific you wanted to see?

Mr Sam

james73

mrsam

Groan!

mrsam

http://s723.photobucket.com/albums/ww239/crumblingruins/St%20Peters/

Link to pictures!!

james73

Joy at bid to save landmark building (Evening Times)

CAMPAIGNERS are celebrating a National Lottery grant that could help save
a derelict seminary described as being of world significance.

They hope the £45,600 cash injection, reported in yesterday's Evening
Times, will be the first step towards saving the "massively important"
building.

St Peter's Seminary, near Cardross, Dunbartonshire, was built in 1966 to
train priests, but it closed in 1980.

Vandals and the weather have taken their toll and the massive, concrete
building is now derelict and unsafe. The dramatic black marble high alter
has been smashed and the seminary set on fire.

The building, which is still owned by the Catholic Church, is A Listed but
was recently added to the 100 most endangered sites list in the World
Monuments Fund.

On Tuesday, the Scottish Arts Council's National Lottery Public Art Fund
awarded NVA, a Glasgow based environment arts charity, £45,600 to
draw up a plan to create "significant" temporary and permanent art works
at the seminary and in surrounding Kilmahew Woodlands.

NVA has been working closely with property developer Urban Splash for
the past year to explore a variety of ways of transforming the building
and 120 acres of semi-ancient woodlands The grant has been widely
welcomed by fans of the historic building, who hope it is the first step
towards restoring it.

James H

Fjord

I'd let the NVA do their thing and then spend lottery millions making it impenetrable with a solid 50 foot fence blocking it off to only but the true explorer.

Tarting it up will only detract from it's ruinous charm.

Stuball

Whats the picture on the left?

james73

Stuball

You'd think they'd use pictures..... oh, never mind :)

samscafeamericain

cybers

They did they used a priest and a catholic church...

They have never let the facts get in the way of a good balls up

darrel

finally took a look at it today my photos are here
http://darrel817.fotopic.net/c1707667.html

HollowHorn

The spunking cock has been painted over!

Fjord

katimac

I took a trip out there at the weekend, what an astounding place! It's a shame that it's been so taken over by graffiti - looks like there's nowhere safe from neds these days

Here's a film we took, much better with sound. We converted it to black and white because it made the graffit look less prominant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBKeo3e0LMc

Thanks for looking

Scary

katimac

Thanks very much Scary

I really must get myself a decent camera, but here's a few pictures I took when I was there

And some creepy looking grafitti-

HollowHorn

wee minx

Excellent katimac, i really enjoyed that...and as Scary says a great choice of music.
I see it too HH

katimac

Dead people? Where?

Thanks guys, it was great fun making the film - I'm going to go back soon and see what remains of the walled garden.

Stuball

Do you know how to get to the walled garden or the castle?

katimac

I made it to the castle when I was there, but couldn't find the walled garden. I think I've found it on Google Maps now, although not entirely sure. When coming back out of the seminary, is it to the left hand side of the woods?

darrel

new photos added
http://darrel817.fotopic.net/c1707667.html

iiisecondcreep

Stuball

Did I not post my pictures from the walled gardens?

After the greenhouses and gates.... there isnt a whole lot to see. Fence on one side, wall on the other and filled with weeds and a few trees

katimac

Fantastic pictures Stuball, I love the one of the moss covered stone steps. Here's a couple I took last week

Stuball

At some point last night, 11th of July, 2009, parts of St Peters Seminary was set on fire. The fire brigade could not attend due to no access caused by a fallen tree and it was allowed to burn out.
When I got there this morning, most of the remaining roof above the alter was burnt and lying on the ground while some parts were still burning. The high alter is totally destroyed with at least a 3rd of it snapped off (I couldnt get close enough to survey the damage.
It gets worse! The teaching block had also been torched and is now totally gutted allowing a view right through it. It was also still smouldering in the middle. The resident barn owl was spotted flying safely further down the estate at least.
I'll get the pictures up as soon as I can but I'll warn seminary fans, it is not a pretty spectacle.

katimac

No way! I've been searching the news but there doesn't seem to be anything about it. From what you've said it seems they've done a pretty good job on it though

robster

Stuball

I learned this afternoon that the alter had been broken prior to last nights fire.... how, I dont know. Here is some pictures

james73

Jeezo, that's grim.

James H

Fjord

'kin hell I could have salvaged some of that timber and put it to good use. Less landfill tax for the the developer though

katimac

I took another trip there today and someone has pitched a tent inside the seminary on the ground floor

Stuball

The cheek... how dare someone think they can shack up in there

wee minx

brilliant....and why not

, as long as there was no roof above, they would probably be alright

dickyhart

interesting article in the sunday herald the other day

http://www.heraldscotland.com/art...-on-scottish-masterpiece-1.917881

cybers

St Peter's Seminary, Cardross

Never found the hidden gardens