A CONVENT which educated thousands of Scottish children for more than a century has been forced to close with the loss of 34 jobs.

The Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur in Dumbarton have issued statutory redundancy notices to staff after being hit by a drop in recruitment to the religious order.

Thousands of secondary pupils were once taught at their extensive estate overlooking the River Clyde in Clerkhill, which included a school, church, playing fields and gardens, but their premises have now been reduced to a small, modern convent and residential home for elderly nuns.

The sisters will leave Dumbarton before Easter, moving to the order's UK headquarters in Liverpool.

A spokesman for the sisterhood said that Sister Pat O'Brien, provincial moderator for the sisters, was deeply saddened by the situation.

Sister Bridget McCann, 74, who has been with the order for 52 years, added: "It's a very sad time, we're all very sad to see it go."

The Catholic Church in Scotland said it was aware of increasing numbers of convent closures over the past 10 years. Church spokesman Peter Kearney said this was due to increasing atheism in a "secular, post-religious society".

The sisters took up residence in Dumbarton in 1911 and for many years were the main providers of Catholic education for young women in West Dunbartonshire.

The premises will now be taken over by The Carmelite Sisters, another religious order based in Dumbarton. They will downsize from their Kirktonhil monastery.