The Clune Park estate near Port Glasgow - often referred to as "Scotland’s Chernobyl" - will soon face demolition for its extreme levels of uninhabitable housing almost 30 years after it was largely abandoned by residents.
The area was condemned for having the lowest standard of housing and the highest void rates anywhere else in the Inverclyde council area.
A £31 million redevelopment plan was finally given the green light in August 2024 to replace the derelict wasteland.
Contractors have since been appointed to level the crumbling Clune Park Church and neighbouring primary school, along with the 138 tenement flats that make up the five main blocks along Robert Street.
The Clune Park estate near Port Glasgow - often referred to as "Scotland’s Chernobyl" - will soon face demolition for its extreme levels of uninhabitable housing almost 30 years after it was largely abandoned by residents
GB News
Built in 1905, the five blocks of iconic Scottish tenement buildings were within walking distance of Port Glasgow’s shipyards, prime real estate for the thousands working in Scotland’s booming shipbuilding industry.
Its decline happened slowly at first, fronted by the 1950’s downturn in Scottish shipbuilding following the second world war.
Finally, the last handful of residents left for pastures new in 1997, with the church closing the same year and Clune Park Primary School shortly followed suit, closing its doors to pupils in 2008.
Standing on the cracked streets in 2025, unironically "28 Years Later", Clune Park really does resemble a post-apocalyptic Scottish community.
Though it’s referred to as ‘Scotland’s Chernobyl’, the moniker actually likens the estate to the Ukrainian town of Pripyat, 10 miles north-west of the infamous nuclear plant.
Once a home to 50,000 people, it was urgently abandoned three days after the explosion in Chernobyl’s reactor No.4.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS:
Within hours, the site became a ghost town and has remained relatively untouched to this day due to the deadly levels of radioactive ash that fell on the town following the catastrophe.
Like Pripyat, the facades of Clune Park’s tenement buildings bare the scars of decades of neglect and degradation.
Black-tarnished window frames give way to reveal completely scorched rooms; hundreds of kilograms of broken glass litter the streets below shattered windows; and weeds have completely overgrown entire courtyards to become wasteland jungles, only visible from the air.
The only signs of life here are relatively new entries to the increasingly large canvas of graffiti.
At ground level, bikes abandoned to rust and algae-inked sofas make the ‘dangerous buildings’ warning signs sparkle by comparison.
Phase one of the regeneration will see the £400K demolition project begin with the church and school to make way for 30 new homes, making better use of the fine view of the Clyde estuary and across the water to Dumbarton.
The area was condemned for having the lowest standard of housing and the highest void rates anywhere else in the Inverclyde council area
GB News
After that, an additional 105 homes will be built along the dual carriageway situated between the Clune Park and the Clyde, before landscaping and cycle paths are added among the final touches.
Councillor Michael McCormick, Inverclyde Council’s convener of Environment and Regeneration, said: “This is a significant milestone for Clune Park and one that I’m sure will be welcomed by the majority of people in Inverclyde and particularly Port Glasgow residents.
“The council has a legal duty to ensure buildings across Inverclyde are safe and properly maintained and a responsibility to act accordingly if and when properties do not meet the necessary standards.”
Inverclyde Council’s building standards team and external surveyors have served dangerous buildings notices on the initial 138 properties and have yet to receive an appeal, allowing a contractor to press ahead with the demolition.
For now, the site remains secure with metal barricades and monitored round the clock by rotating security guards and CCTV, though it remains a popular spot for urban decay enthusiasts to capture this dark and gloomy chapter of Port Glasgow’s past before it’s gone.
