ST Peter's Seminary has been empty for four decades - but it remains a living building when it comes to ever-changing graffiti.
Kilmahew Education Trust boss Stuart Cotton said the Cardross structure is category A-listed, but that is not for the 1967 Gillespie, Kidd & Coia original - that's as it is today.
So any work in the future must preserve the graffiti, at the very least documenting it.
And recording what's there, which is done regularly, also opens opportunities. Because the art and tags are on someone else's property, the landowner owns the intellectual property.
"We will do a coffee table book on the graffiti," says Stuart. He lists several book plans during the course of a tour of the estate.
He explains there was a hierarchy to the artists, with the best work not getting covered over by newer art.
Some, such as the portrait of a woman facing where the altar once was, has been there for 20 years.
"My job is in the intelligence world, so we speak to everyone who comes up here, including graffiti artists," Stuart says.
"For mural artists, it's a practice space. We are a test bed for what goes into Glasgow."
"We are a mini-Barbican in the making," he adds, referring to the London arts and learning centre.
Photos by Tristan Stewart-Robertson
