A surprising trip to Kinneil House in Bo'ness Scotland

A few weekends ago we took a trip to see Kinneil House, which is in the town of Bo'ness in central Scotland. Bo'ness is actually fairly close to where we live in Edinburgh (about a 25min drive), but its not a town we had visited so far, and its not on a route we'd take to anywhere, so it was our first time there.

I had been looking for a new historic site to visit, and came across Kinneil House on the Historic Environment Scotland website. It was built in 1553, but is largely a ruin now. Although externally it looks fine, its pretty much gutted on the inside.

There was a small museum on the grounds, and the attendant there told us some of the story of the house. It was built as a mansion house originally, and its interesting to see the mix of styles. The pic above of the side shows quite typical Scottish architecture of the time, whereas the frontage is not at all typical of Scotland. There is a clear European influence there.

This old ruined outbuilding just behind the house is actually very important historically. This was originally a workshop, and it was within there that James Watt undertook important work that led towards the development of the condensing steam engine !

I was quite shocked to learn about that and had no idea that that was where he had undertaken his work. At the time it was a considerable technology breakthrough and pretty much lead to the industrial revolution.

Next to the building is the remains of one of the engines he built. It was not originally on this site, but was relocated here as part of the memorial to his work.

There was also some nice grounds to explore behind the house. It was raining constantly while we were there so we didnt explore all of the grounds, but this lovely old ruined chapel was there. And further up there is actually the remains of a Roman villa or fort, noting that the Antonine Wall, which the Romans built right across Scotland, would have run through these grounds or close to them (dating from around 142 AD !). We didnt get to see the Roman remains.

There were some beautifully carved gravestones by the chapel, like the one above.

There were other interesting features around to see like the lovely wood carving above. I have to say that I was really impressed, and definitely want to go back to see all of the grounds (when its not pouring with rain !), and especially the Roman ruins.

The museum guide also explained to us that the house was originally scheduled for demolition, but when they started to remove the internal fittings of the house, the found amazing painted decoration on the walls and ceilings. On inspection, it was considered historically important, and hence they saved the building. You can get tours to go inside and see that (but they dont start up until April). So having learned more, we will definitely visit the house again and do the tour.

The museum guide also told us other history about the town (which was very industrial in years gone by) and gave us information about local walks and the like. We were quite amazed and we handnt realised that all of this was there. So it was a great place to find out about, and we are absolutely looking forward to going back. Both Bo'ness and Kinneil House and grounds exceeded our expectation. And it was also free ! Highly recommended.

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