Cardross, oblique aerial view, taken from the SSE, of St Peter's College.

Description Cardross, oblique aerial view, taken from the SSE, of St Peter's College.

Date 31/8/1998

Collection RCAHMS Aerial Photography

Catalogue Number D 36157 CN

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 713671, SC 1685937

Scope and Content Aerial view of St Peter's College, Cardross, Argyll & Bute St Peter's College was commissioned in 1959 as a seminary (training college) for Roman Catholic priests, to be created adjacent to Kilmahew House which was built in 1868 to designs by John Burnet (demolished 1995). The college was designed 1959-63 by Isi Metzstein, J Cowell and Andrew McMillan of the architectural firm of Gillespie Kidd & Coia, and completed by 1966. It ceased to function as a training college in 1979, and was used as a drug rehabilitation centre 1983-7. It is now derelict. This aerial view shows the college after Kilmahew House was demolished, leaving an outline of its walls in the centre of the site. The huge main block with its tiers of arches and balconies contains the student bedrooms (cells), refectory (dining room) and main chapel plus five, half-domed side chapels. Its curved end section (left) contains the sanctuary chapel and ramp. The trapezoidal section adjacent to this was the teaching block. The rectangular block with two smaller buildings with curved walls (top right) was the nunnery. The site chosen for the college is within a beautiful wooded landscape in what was the grounds of a Victorian country house. The careful choice of setting relates to the ideas of traditional monasteries, where monks retreated from the world in order to devote themselves to worship and prayer away from worldly distractions. This building has been selected as one of Scotland's key 20th-century Modern architectural monuments. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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