I thought I had missed my chance with this place – my first couple of attempts to explore it were unsuccessful, and there looked to be major demolition going on, so I thought there might be nothing left by the time I tried again. But when I drove past at the end of March, I could see that it was still there, and better still, it now looked completely deserted and unsecured! I wasn’t able to stop there that day, but I resolved to come back, and a few weeks later I did.
This place was a campus owned by a large financial organisation, set at the foot of a pleasant wooded hill on the edge of a city. It’s been empty since they moved out in 2022, though apparently there are plans for redevelopment. The main office building is absolutely huge. It’s rumoured to be the largest abandoned building in Scotland at the present time, and I can believe that. I think it’s the biggest building I’ve ever explored by some margin, though EDS and Gray Dunn and Co. (both now demolished) might have given it a run for its money. There were various other buildings as well, but I didn’t explore any of them on my visit.
The front of the complex is in a very visible location right next to a motorway junction so rather than risk attracting attention by entering there, I opted to walk in through the woodland behind instead. It was a lovely day and by the time I’d negotiated the paths over the hill I was already very hot and sweaty. There was a little derelict brick hut up in the woods away from the other buildings with some interesting looking electronic equipment inside. Apparently this was communications gear dating from when the owning company had their own trucks transporting cash around.
But I was most looking forward to the main event: the large office building. I’d seen countless photos and videos online from other explorers so I had some idea what to expect, though I still wanted to see it for myself. Descending the last part of the hill was a bit of a scramble, but soon I found myself standing on what had once been a narrow road around the back of the building. It was now littered with all sorts of debris ranging from pieces of glass and rubble to various palettes to a lone swivel chair. Immediately I could see that gaining access to the interior wasn’t going to be difficult; almost all of the door and window openings were wide open and it was just a case of picking one and stepping inside.
The western end of the building had been completely stripped back to bare concrete walls, floors, ceilings and pillars so that, more than anything else, it now resembled some sort of surreal multi-storey car park. Due to all the missing full length windows, I knew that anyone coming into the large parking area outside the building would see me immediately, but there seemed to be no-one around.
Thankfully the rest of the building hadn’t been so drastically stripped out, so it felt a bit more like it would have done when in use, and there was more to see. Fairly soon I stumbled upon the reception area. This was one of the parts I remembered seeing in other people’s photos and videos and I’d been hoping I would get to see it for myself. The imposing round wooden reception desk was still in place, though now covered with broken glass and fallen debris from up above, and (rather incongruously considering it was indoors) surrounded by Heras fencing.
On one of the walls, stretching up to span multiple storeys, was this interesting looking piece of artwork, possibly made of bronze or possibly something cheaper. When I showed her my photos, my wife commented that she was surprised no-one had made off with it, but considering the size of the thing, I don’t think that would be an easy task.
The solid concrete floors still looked to be in good condition, so I felt comfortable enough to have a look at the upper storeys of the building as well. They were pretty similar to the ground floor, with very bare parts that had been fully stripped out, and other bits that were like very trashed offices, with suspended ceiling tiles hanging down from the ceiling or littering the floors. I’m not sure when the building was built exactly, but it all seemed more modern than I’d expected. Maybe it was at least refitted relatively recently.
As I progressed towards the east end of the building, the going became more difficult, mostly because of the state of the floors. Some rooms appeared to have had false floors that had now been removed, leaving the metal frameworks that used to support them sticking up amidst a mass of torn insulation, broken ceiling tiles and other assorted detritus.
I found myself marveling at what had been removed and what had survived, with seemingly no rhyme or reason to it. One room had obviously been a toilet originally. Most of the fittings and fixtures had gone, but there was still a single smashed toilet bowl near the centre, along with mirrors on the walls, a lone paper towel dispenser, and the countertop that would once have held the wash basins.
After a while, I decided it was time to find my way out and rejoin my wife and son, who were now waiting for me in our camper van near the front gate. As I walked out across the huge expanse of tarmac, I took the opportunity to get some exterior shots to show the scale of the building. At first I couldn’t see any obvious way through the security fence and was worried I might have to go back the way I had come, which, nice though the walk had been, wasn’t an appealing prospect at that point. But then I found a gap next to a smaller building that may have served as some sort of gate house, and soon I was walking out of the site, wondering if any of the drivers in the huge roadworks-induced traffic jam just outside had noticed where I’d come from.
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