scottisharchitecture.com

St Peter's Seminary, Cardross, a building completed in 1966 by Gillespie, Kidd & Coia architects was recently placed on the World Monuments Fund list of the World's Most Endangered Sites for 2008. According to the WMF website that list contains buildings and monuments which are 'casualties of neglect, conflict, natural disaster and pressures of change'. And the task of WMF is, again, that it 'safeguards the world's irreplaceable heritage'. There's no doubt that St Peter's is a 'casualty of neglect' and also a victim of 'pressures of change'. By 1980 the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland had given up on its mission to train young priests there. Some seven years later the attempt to use St Peter's as a drugs rehab unit was similarly renounced: the buildings were abandoned and have lain derelict ever since. Despite various plans and initiatives - to convert it to housing, a hotel, a music centre etc. - over the years St Peter's has rotted. Nearly all the fine joinery work and interior fittings have been ripped out; there have been numerous fires inside, and what remains is more or less a concrete shell.