Tags
100 Most Endangered Sites, abandoned, Argyll and Bute, Cardross, Clan Napier, Crardross Golf Course, forbidden, Glasgow, greatest post-WWII building, heritage site, Historic Scotland, Kilmahew Castle, Napier family, Scotland, St. Peters Seminal, Stuball, tower house, UK, urban exploration, World Monuments Fund
If you find yourself in Glasgow, or you’re visiting TravelCreepster sites such as the Overtoun Bridge take a quick drive North where you can find two of the UK’s little known abandoned treasures within a fifteen minute walk from one another; one ancient and one very modern. Welcome to Cardross…
Kilmahew Castle, found just beyond the Northern edge of Crardross Golf Course is an estimated seven hundred years old, built by the Clan Napier. To be accurate, the Kilmahew Castle is not a full fledged castle, but a four-storey 16th century tower house with gothic modifications added on in the 19th century. The Napier’s lived in the castle for another 18 generations following its construction, but today the property is owned by the Catholic Church.
The real treasure of urban exploration is situated across the golf course. St. Peter’s Seminary; although it was accepting residents earlier, it was completed in 1966. From the beginning the seminary was riddled with difficulties. It became notorious for exceptionally bad construction, in most part due to “significant water ingress”. More so, it never did reach its full capacity of students. Troubles persisted until 1980 when the Catholic Church abandoned the structures function as a seminary and attempted its shift to use as a drug rehabilitation center. Maintenance costs of the structure became to much for the church to bear and in 2005 it was finally abandoned completely.
Despite having such a short history the site is a Category A listed by Historic Scotland and considered to be Scotland’s greatest post-WWII building. In 2008 the building was included in the World Monuments Fund’s “100 Most Endangered Sites”.
The above photos were found on a chat board, taken and posted by user “Stuball”. Tremendous work Stuball. I’d love to put a link to your site, get in touch.