Overview of Cardross

A kirkton settlement on the north side of the Firth of Clyde, 3 miles (5 km) northwest of Dumbarton in Argyll and Bute, Cardross developed as a residential village centred around its 17th Century church. King Robert the Bruce is said to have died from leprosy in Cardross Castle in 1329, and the 18th century novelist Tobias Smollett was born here in 1721. Darleith House, 2 miles (3 km) to the north, was built in 1510 by the Darleith family, one of whom was Lord Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of Scots. St. Peter's Seminary, a Roman Catholic college built in 1966 but closed in 1980, lies ruined to the northeast, despite a campaign to restore this fine building.