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Kinneil House
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Kinneil House is an historic house to the west of
Bo'ness in east-central Scotland. It was once the principal seat of the
Hamilton family in the east of Scotland.
The house was saved
from demolition in 1936 when 16th-century mural paintings were
discovered, and it is now in the care of Historic Scotland. It sits
within a public park, which also incorporates a section of the Roman
Antonine Wall.
The house now consists of a symmetrical mansion
built in 1677 on the remains of an earlier 16th- or 15th-century tower
house, with two rows of gunloops for early cannon still visible. A
smaller east wing, of the mid 16th century, contains the two painted
rooms. The house is protected as a Category A listed building, and as a
Scheduled Ancient Monument.
The lands of Kinneil with Larbert and
Auldcathy were given to Walter Fitz Gilbert, an ancestor of the Hamilton
family by Robert the Bruce in 1323. A charter of 1474 mentions a castle
at "Craig Lyown", and the saltpans which added to the estate income. The
Castle of Lyon was nearer the sea at Snab Brae, and remembered by the
name of Castleloan housing estate.
Parts of an older castle,
which replaced the castle at the Snab may be incorporated in the present
building. James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran died at Kinneil in 1529, but
wished to be buried at Hamilton.
The east wing of the surviving
building, and perhaps the earlier tower with wide-mouthed gunloops, was
built by James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran (c.1516–1575). He was the
Governor or Regent of Scotland on the death of James V. Some payments
were recorded in the royal treasurer's accounts. Coal was shipped from
Kinneil to Leith for Edinburgh Castle, and timber for repairing Arran's
chamber at 'Craig Lyon' came from Leith in May 1545. Timber for roofing,
floors and panelling was sent by boat from Leith in 1549 and 1550 to
complete one section.
The garden or "yaird" was improved for the
Spring of 1553, by planting trees, hedges, marjoram and lettuce. In
September 1553, Arran gave a gift of 44 shillings to masons laying the
foundation stones of another part of the Palace. One of the masons was
Thomas Bargany and at this time John Scrimgeour of Myres was Arran's
master of work or architect.
The 16th century painted interior
decoration and a
stone armorial carry Arran's ducal coronet, and the collar of the
Order of Saint Michael, French honours he received in 1548. The stone
has the Hamilton motto, the woodsman's cry, "Through!", and the arms of
his wife, Margaret Douglas, with her motto "Lock Sickar", meaning secure
or steadfast. The armorial stone was formerly set on the north pavilion
of the main block, and is now displayed with other carved stones in a
cellar.
One of his painted rooms has decoration that evokes
verdure tapestry and vignettes of Samson and Delilah, Abraham and Isaac,
and David and Bathsheba and the The Temptation of St. Anthony; this
vaulted room is now called the Arbour Room. The other room has scenes
from the Parable of the Good Samaritan, Lucretia, Saint Jerome and Mary
Magdalene. The original use of this suite of rooms is unknown. The
subjects of these paintings allude to the Power of Women, perhaps a
political reference to Mary of Guise, Mary Queen of Scots and the two
Tudor Queens of England.
The house was empty on 4 February 1560
when French troops led by d'Oysel attacked and burnt it. On Easter Day
1562, the 3rd Earl of Arran, who suffered from mental ill health,
escaped from his father and bedchamber at Kinneil using sheets as a
rope. The drop was 30 fathoms. After the battle of Corrichie in October
1562, Arran was the reluctant keeper of George Gordon at Kinneil, the
forfeited heir of the Earl of Huntly.
Regent Lennox damaged the
house with gunpowder and spoiled the lands after the assassination of
Regent Moray at Linlithgow by a Hamilton. James VI reduced the power of
the Hamiltons by military force in 1579, and the Duke's wife, Margaret
Douglas, and daughter Lady Jean Hamilton, Countess of Eglinton, were
brought to Kinneil from Craignethan Castle.
Margaret was the daughter of James
Douglas, 3rd Earl of Morton and Katherine Stewart, the illegitimate
daughter of James IV.
Margaret, and her sisters, Beatrix and Elizabeth, were at 'certayne
tymes or the most part of the yere distempered with an unquiet humour' -
i.e. mentally ill.
In 1581 the king gave their estates and titles
to James Stewart. The new Earl often resided at Kinneil until after his
own fall in the autumn of 1585, when he remained at Kinneil under
house-arrest, and for a time Kinneil was called Arran House.
James VI of Scotland stayed in May 1582, to receive an envoy, Signor
Paul, sent by the Duke of Guise with a gift of horses and gunpowder. The
visit was controversial because Paul was known to have been involved in
the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre. (Some sources say Paul was received
at Dalkeith Palace) After the Raid of Ruthven, the Earl of Arran was
confined at Kinneil. When the Ruthven regime collapsed, James VI came to
banquet at Kinneil with Arran on 13 November 1583. The next day, Ludovic
Stewart son of the King's favourite Esmé Stewart arrived from France at
Leith and was taken to Kinneil to meet the King.
James VI held
court at Kinneil again at Christmas-time in 1588 as the guest of John
Hamilton, Commendator of Arbroath. He played at the "maye" (probably the
card-game "maw" now called "Forty-fives") with his English courtier,
Roger Aston, and told him that the more he did to please Elizabeth the
less regard she had of him. The Earl of Huntly, the Earl of Crawford and
the Chancellor, John Maitland, were present.
The Arbour Room was
redecorated c.1620 for James Hamilton, 2nd Marquess of Hamilton and his
wife Ann Cunningham and the "shakefork" of Cunningham heraldry can still
be seen. This painting was almost certainly the work of Valentine
Jenkins, Englishman and burgess of Glasgow, and painter of the Chapel
Royal at Stirling Castle. When Anne died in 1644, she left Kinneil with
its new tapestries and the furnishings she had made to her son, James,
1st Duke of Hamilton. She had laboured to make the coal mines and salt
pans profitable and urged him to employ faithful servants and never put
it out of his own hand.
The main house was rebuilt by
William Douglas, 3rd Duke of
Hamilton in 1677 with a uniform facade and a pair of stone
staircases at the ends. He sent his plans to help
William Douglas, 1st Duke
of Queensberry with his building works, which included
Drumlanrig Castle in Dumfriesshire and
Queensberry House in Edinburgh. An
inventory of 1688 gives the names of rooms in the now gutted main house.
The front door opened into a Laich Hall, and a grand stair to the south
led to the dining room above. The same arrangement can still be seen at
the contemporary Argyll's Lodging, Stirling.
But family use of
the house declined, as income from the mines and port increased. In the
late 18th century, Dr John Roebuck, founder of the Carron Iron Works
lived at Kinneil House, during which time the engineer James Watt worked
at perfecting his steam engine, in a cottage adjacent to the house.
Between 1809 and 1828 the 9th Duke gave the philosopher Dugald Stewart
use of the house.
By 1936 the Hamiltons had abandoned the house,
and Bo'ness Town Council were demolishing it when Stanley Cursitor,
director of the National Galleries of Scotland, heard that new wall
paintings had been discovered. The Ministry of Works quickly secured the
wing with the paintings, and recovered the oak ribbed ceiling of the
Parable Room. The paintings were restored, and the whole building is now
in the care of Historic Scotland.
The former parish church is to
the west of the palace and is a roofless ruin. The west gable survives.
One of its bells, now preserved in the nearby Kinneil Museum, has the
inscription "-EN KATHARINA VOCOR UT PER ME VIRGINIS ALME -," (I AM
CALLED KATHARINE, AND THROUGH ME, OF THE VIRGIN MARY, ARE -) It has been
suggested the inscription was completed on a second bell. A large stone
cross from the church is kept with the palace.
The house is
reportedly haunted by a White Lady, believed to be the ghost of Lady
Alice who killed herself by leaping from the building in the 17th
Century to escape her cruel husband. Lady Alice or Ailie was
traditionally supposed to haunt the nearby glen of the Gil Burn. |
Sources
Sources for this article include:
• "Kinneil House, Listed Building Report". Historic Scotland.
• "The Monument known as Kinneil House". Historic Scotland.
• Historic Scotland magazine, Spring 2017
Any contributions will be
gratefully accepted
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