Wrecking machines move in to demolish ‘ghost town' Scots estate dubbed ‘Britain's Chernobyl'
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WRECKING crews have started tearing down a ghost town estate dubbed "Scotland's Chernobyl."
Clune Park in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, has been abandoned since the late 1990's and is finally set to disappear for good.
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Demolition work has started on the abandoned Clune Park estate
Credit: SWNS
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The area has been left to rot for decades
Credit: SWNS
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Clune Park was once dubbed Scotland's Chernobyl
Credit: SWNS
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The estate once housed more than 400 people
Credit: SWNS
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Work has began tearing down the hellhole scheme
Credit: SWNS
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A digger tears apart the abandoned Clune Park church
Credit: SWNS
Decades or dereliction has turned the area into what looks like a post-apocalyptic wasteland.
The hellhole scheme has become a magnet for vandals and urban explorers, with buildings covered in graffiti and broken windows.
Piles of debris have littered the streets while some areas have had to be fenced off to stop people from entering dangerous buildings.
Clune Park is in such a state, Inverclyde Council once compared it to the Ukrainian town of Pripyat, which has been abandoned and completely uninhabitable since the Chernobyl reactor exploded in 1986.
The council has been wanting to tear down the eerie estate for years, but has been battling landlords who refused to sell properties.
It was confirmed last August that the council had bought up many of the properties and served dangerous building notices on the remaining structures, meaning demolition could finally begin.
Work began today tearing down the gothic-style Clune Park church.
A large digger ripped down walls and tore up floors as the building was reduced to rubble.
Video showed the huge machine using a claw to smash up pieces of the derelict church.
Clune Park was once a thriving community for Inverclyde's shipbuilding community.
Fire rips through school in abandoned Clune Park estate
Built in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the estate had 30 flats in 45 four-storey tenement buildings.
Clune Park School was built for the worker's children in 1887 and permanently closed its doors in 2008 after a more modern school was built nearby. It was burned down in 2023.
The now-demolished church was built in 1905 but was abandoned in 1997.
The area was left to rot after the loss of the area's shipbuilding industry as people moved elsewhere to find work, and has since become a decaying wasteland.
Flats in the ghost town estate have been sold for as little as £6,000 because of the poor conditions and soaring crime rate.
Councillor Stephen McCabe, leader of Inverclyde Council, said: 'It's important to remember that the former school and church buildings and the residential properties are being demolished in the interests of safety based on professional advice following extensive investigations.
'The council has a duty to ensure public safety across Inverclyde and take action where necessary to protect the public from dangerous buildings and that's the position we find ourselves in with Clune Park.
'With the demolition due to commence, this is an historic moment and progress towards the ultimate goal of regenerating this prominent area of Port Glasgow.
'There is still a long way to go to realise our ambition of redeveloping Clune Park, but this is a significant step in the right direction and one I'm sure the people of Port Glasgow and wider Inverclyde will welcome.'
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