Introduction
Ever since I started getting into the hobby several years ago, I have always known about St. Peters and have always wanted to visit. Being over a 7-hour drive away, I didn’t think I would ever do it, but me and @JakeV50 decided to plan and pick a week to do this and some other bits and pieces up Scotland, so I could finally tick it off
Information & History
The Seminary in use. Photo: Glasgow School of Art
This place has been covered hundreds of times (literally) so I will try to keep this brief. Construction started on St. Peters Seminary in 1961 and was designed by Scottish architects Gillespie, Kidd & Coia. The firm was known for incorporating daring modernist and brutalist designs in religious sites and universities. Thanks to the interesting brutalist design, the seminary was quickly regarded as one of the most important examples of brutalist architecture in the UK and around the world.
The seminary was constructed to replace an old site in Glasgow which suffered a large fire in 1946, but by the time the new site opened in 1966, the growth of church congregations had started to stagnate thus the full capacity of 100 students was never reached. The building had several problems such as water ingress as a result of the unique design. The seminary closed in 1980 and was later used as a drug rehabilitation centre for a short period of time.
The main structure and all of its associated buildings have laid disused since 1987 and were given the highest listing category (A) five years later by Historic Scotland. Various plans were put in place to restore the building and put it back into use but none of those ever materialised. In 2019, the owner at the time described the building as a ‘ruin’. A year later, the Catholic Church transferred ownership to the Kilmahew Education Trust.
The Explore
Initially, we drove past the main parking area and ended up driving up to the end of a private road of which we encountered some elderly dog walkers. We spoke to them and we initially thought they were going to spool all the usual ‘this is private, people going to the Seminary are destroying the area’ etc etc, but they were actually really friendly and advised us where to park and to enjoy our visit. The site is next to a golf course and we saw many people playing golf which was funny. We spent about two hours at the site and saw a few other people wandering around including a couple who travelled across the pond to see it.
Overall it exceeded expectations and I’m happy I’ve finally seen it. I know there are already plenty of reports floating around, but one more can’t hurt, right?
Photos
Starting off with a few externals:
Some pics from the ground:
A small underground section:
Various shots from the inside and from the top, the bright sun worked great for some shots but a hindrance for others:
Thanks for looking!
Ever since I started getting into the hobby several years ago, I have always known about St. Peters and have always wanted to visit. Being over a 7-hour drive away, I didn’t think I would ever do it, but me and @JakeV50 decided to plan and pick a week to do this and some other bits and pieces up Scotland, so I could finally tick it off
Information & History
The Seminary in use. Photo: Glasgow School of Art
This place has been covered hundreds of times (literally) so I will try to keep this brief. Construction started on St. Peters Seminary in 1961 and was designed by Scottish architects Gillespie, Kidd & Coia. The firm was known for incorporating daring modernist and brutalist designs in religious sites and universities. Thanks to the interesting brutalist design, the seminary was quickly regarded as one of the most important examples of brutalist architecture in the UK and around the world.
The seminary was constructed to replace an old site in Glasgow which suffered a large fire in 1946, but by the time the new site opened in 1966, the growth of church congregations had started to stagnate thus the full capacity of 100 students was never reached. The building had several problems such as water ingress as a result of the unique design. The seminary closed in 1980 and was later used as a drug rehabilitation centre for a short period of time.
The main structure and all of its associated buildings have laid disused since 1987 and were given the highest listing category (A) five years later by Historic Scotland. Various plans were put in place to restore the building and put it back into use but none of those ever materialised. In 2019, the owner at the time described the building as a ‘ruin’. A year later, the Catholic Church transferred ownership to the Kilmahew Education Trust.
The Explore
Initially, we drove past the main parking area and ended up driving up to the end of a private road of which we encountered some elderly dog walkers. We spoke to them and we initially thought they were going to spool all the usual ‘this is private, people going to the Seminary are destroying the area’ etc etc, but they were actually really friendly and advised us where to park and to enjoy our visit. The site is next to a golf course and we saw many people playing golf which was funny. We spent about two hours at the site and saw a few other people wandering around including a couple who travelled across the pond to see it.
Overall it exceeded expectations and I’m happy I’ve finally seen it. I know there are already plenty of reports floating around, but one more can’t hurt, right?
Photos
Starting off with a few externals:
Some pics from the ground:
A small underground section:
Various shots from the inside and from the top, the bright sun worked great for some shots but a hindrance for others:
Thanks for looking!
