Children give their verdict on Kinneil House and Museum

The Friends of Kinneil charity has been working with local children to raise the profile of Kinneil House in Bo’ness. Supported by Historic Scotland and Falkirk Community Trust, the group organised a special schools day in May this year. Comments from visiting children from Bo’ness Public School are published below.

The School’s primary four is doing a project on the House, Museum and Estate – and the Roman occupiers of the land nearly 2000 years ago. As part of The Friends’ outreach work, the charity paid for a Roman soldier, a member of the Antonine Guard re-enactment group, to visit the school. The Friends also organised for archaeologist Geoff Bailey from Falkirk Community Trust to meet the children and show them Roman artefacts.

One of the Friends’ volunteers, Yvonne McBlain, visited the school dressed as Kinneil House’s “White Lady” – Lady Alice Lilbourne, who is said to haunt the House and its grounds. In addition, members of the Falkirk District Wargames Club – who regularly stage Roman war games during Big Roman Week –  visited the children. Youngsters were also allowed to create Kinneil models, and take them home.

We hope you enjoy reading the children’s feedback below. They clearly enjoyed their project and we hope they will return to Kinneil soon.

If you feel inspired to visit Kinneil, visit our homepage and click through for current open days at Kinneil House. You can also visit Kinneil Museum all year, normally Mondays to Saturdays from 12.30 p.m. to 4 p.m. Admission to House and Museum is free.

* Inspired by the youngsters, below? Leave comments on Kinneil Museum on TripAdvisor. (Currently there isn’t a listing for Kinneil House at present.) You can also email The Friends of Kinneil via: info@kinneil.org.uk

OUR VISIT TO KINNEIL BY CHILDREN FROM PRIMARY FOUR AT BO’NESS PUBLIC SCHOOL

• P4 visited the fabulous historic place of Kinneil House on Friday the 15^th of May 2015. My favourite part was when we went to the Museum because I learned lots of things from Geoff Bailey the brilliant archaeologist. He showed us weird handcuffs. Before we did went a treasure hunt around Kinneil House. I liked the absolutely gorgeous paintings. I saw stuffed animals. I also saw beautiful paintings too. I enjoyed learning about Kinneil House. I hope you have as much fun as I did at Kinneil House. By Ami Torrance

• Me and P4 went to Kinneil House. P4 enjoyed the journey to Kinneil House. We were split into three groups for a treasure hunt we had to find every picture on the sheet paper with the photos. By Andrew Heeps

• I visited Kinneil House on Friday the 15^th of May 2015. I saw all the rooms, they were quite big. My favourite room was the painted room because there were flowers and animals all over the walls. We also did a Kinneil House topic, my favourite part of that was when an archaeologist called Geoff Baily came into our class and showed us lots of artefacts of the Romans time. I loved Kinneil House and my topic. By Annabel Robb

• We went to Kinneil House on the 15^th May 2015. I saw a crossbow in the museum. My favourite thing was being on Jesus cross. It was in the House. I really enjoyed my visit. By Ben Hyslop

• Hi everyone I’m Cerys and I visited Kinneil House on Friday 15^th of May 2015. My favourite thing was when we saw Geoff Bailey in the museum and he showed us lots of cool Roman artefacts. I got to hold all of them. This is interesting because I have never seen anything like it before. This is why you really have to go to Kinneil House. By Cerys McCormack

• I visited Kinneil House on Friday 15^th 2015 may my favourite part was in the Kitchen part and I really liked seeing the white lady and I loved the roman part because I never knew stuff about the romans and Mrs Mc Blain was amazing at acting so that was really good and the primary 4 wants to say thank you I had a great time I wish we could have more trips at Kinneil House because all they trips were fun the white lady looked real but she was not real she probably died 20090 from the olden day she lived in Kinneil House but she didn’t want to live there but her husband made her so she jumped out of the window and ran away then she sat in a chair then she saw a roman they smiled at each other and she was in a farm with cows and sheep’s. By Courtney Hill

• I visited Kinneil House on Friday the 15^th of May 2015. I saw the Arbour room and all the other rooms. I also found a spider on the roof of Kinneil House. My favourite was the museum. Although I liked Geoff Bailey the archaeologist. My favourite part was the room that told a story. It did not speak but the story was told in picture on the wall. By Erin Kivlin

• We visited Kinneil House on Friday the 15^th of May 2015.I saw the beautiful paintings in the Arbour Room, there were some weird paintings and some nice paintings. My favourite part was when we got to go to the museum and see the dead stuffed animals. This was because I like animals and I enjoyed seeing them close up. By Fiona Mitchell

• I visited Kinneil House on Friday 15^th May 2015. I saw the new refurbished museum and the beautiful painted rooms. My favourite part was the artefacts and painted rooms because the paintings have stories behind them. The artefacts are used weirdly but they’re beautifully polished and made. By Fraser Oswald P4

• We visited Kinneil House on Friday the 15^th of May 2015.My favourite part was looking around. I liked when we went to the museum with Geoff Bailey and looked at objects from the past. I liked looking at objects past because I have never seen any of these objects. By Harrison Murray

• P4 visited Kinneil House on Friday 15^th of May. In Kinneil Museum there was fun games and colouring in. My favourite parts were the beautiful paintings decorated all over the palace. The paintings were all over the place in nearly every room. There was amazing bits or stone with marks and lines. Over all I enjoyed our trip.  By Joe Lyall

• We visited Kinneil House on Friday 15^th of May 2015.My favourite part was the house because I like exploring and Looking at the paintings because they were interesting. I didn’t like all the stuffed animals because it was very sad. By Jorja Aitken

• Me and my class went to Kinneil House on May the 15^th 2015. I saw the museum a catapult stuffed animals sail shells and artefacts. They were all exhibits. I had a lot of fun at Kinneil House. By Katie Brand

• I visited Kinneil House on 15^th of May 2015.I saw the kitchen, the Arbour  and the Kinneil. I saw all of the beautiful paintings. I also saw the catapult. My favourite part was when we went to do the treasure hunt in Kinneil House. By Louis Chapoy

• We visited Kinneil House on Friday the 15^th of May 2015. I loved all the amazing old pictures and every one of them holds a story. The palace was beautiful to explore and investigate all the stuff that had been used by all the families that lived there. The museum was full of old stuff and models. If you go to Kinneil House I hope you get all the information that I got because I think Kinneil House is excellent. By Lucy Hellen

• Primary 4 visited Kinneil House on the 15^th of May 2015. I got to see inside the museum and have a shot of a catapult. I liked inside the museum because it was interesting upstairs looking at the church bells. I liked the treasure hunt because it was good fun. I never liked inside Kinneil House because I almost fell down the stairs. By McKenzie Walker

• My topic was Kinneil House. I learned a lot. We got lots of visitors. One of them was Joe who dressed up us a Roman Soldier. He brought in lots of swords and shields. He got one big sword and shield. Another visitor called Geoff Bailey came he was an archaeologist. He brought in lots of cool artefacts that some people dug up. Some artefacts were owned by the Romans. By Morgan Rose

• The brilliant Kinneil House is good for a relaxing day. The artefacts are brilliant and Geoff Bailey will tell you about them all. The paintings are inspirational and I think you should go. By Noah Grieve

• I liked going to Kinneil House because I liked seeing all of the paintings. The bedrooms were beautiful with all the paintings. The kitchen was really good seeing all the food. By Paige Vallely

• Hello everybody my name is Peter and I am going to tell you about Kinneil House. I went there on Friday 15^th May 2015. There are lots of fun. Geoff Bailey the archaeologist was very helpful I saw a catapult and a lot of beautiful and amazing pictures. Thank you for listening. By Peter Kiss

• I visited Kinneil House on Friday 15^th May 2015. I saw lots of different artefacts they were very interesting  because they looked mysterious. My favourite part was looking at the paintings because I had never seen anything like it before. By Rhys King

• We visited Kinneil House on May 15^th 2015. I saw boulders in the kitchen and grave stones in the kitchen. My favourite part of the trip was going to the museum because there was a lot of interesting things to see. By Rhys McCallum

• I visited Kinneil House on Friday 15^th 2015 May. My favourite part was seeing the White Lady in our class well she was really Yvonne McBlain. She was amazing at acting she was AWESOME . We also saw Geoff the archaeologist he was AWESOME too. This is because the artefacts he showed us where amazing. By Zara Murphy

• P4 visited Kinneil house we explored Kinneil house. Kinneil house was very interesting the artefacts were brilliant. All the rooms were interesting because the paintings looked new. When we were in the artefacts room it look awesome. By Jack Johnston

• Primary 4 visited Kinneil House on Friday 15^th of May. My favourite part was going inside the house. This was because I liked learning about the rooms. They were interesting because I have never seen them before. It was a great trip. By Kiera Burns P4

• I visited Kinneil House on Friday 15^th May 2015. I saw the Roman Fort. I thought a war happened. My favourite part was looking at the artefacts. I thought they were spectacular. By Cloe Peretto

• I visited Kinneil House on Friday the 15^th May 2015 I saw the painted rooms, the kitchen and the servant stairs. I really liked the museum because you got to see real dead animals and a bell from the church it was so much fun. When you go to Kinneil house I hope you enjoy it like I did. By Reese McAvoy

• Primary Four went to Kinneil House on the 15^th May 2015. I saw the beautiful paintings and we saw an archaeologist called Geoff Bailey. He was cool, because he explained and showed us artefacts. My favourite part was the museum because it has very cool ornaments and exhibits. By Amy Evans

* Inspired by the youngsters? Leave comments on Kinneil Museum on TripAdvisor. (Currently there isn’t a listing for Kinneil House at present.) You can also email The Friends of Kinneil via: info@kinneil.org.uk