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MEMBERS of The Friends of Kinneil charity – and their guests – have celebrated the life of James Watt (born on January 19, 1736) at the group’s second annual James Watt Supper. Inspired by the traditional Burns’ celebrations, the Watt Supper remembers the legacy of the great Scottish inventor, who did some of his early work at Kinneil Estate in Bo’ness.

This year around 50 members of the Bo’ness charity packed into the St. Mary’s Church Hall in the town for the event, which was held on Friday, January 20. A gallery of photos from the event is available below. (Click each picture to see a larger version.)

The menu was inspired by food from the 18th century, and entertainment included poems and readings linked to Watt – as well as the premiere of a specially-written play about Watt’s time at Kinneil Estate.

Maria Ford from the charity said: “We’d like to thank everyone who attended our James Watt Supper. We had the first event last year to tie in with the 275th anniversary of Watt’s birth. It was such a success we thought we’d repeat the event this year – and it was bigger and even better than before.”

If you’d like to join The Friends of Kinneil and attend events like this, visit www.kinneil.org.uk/friends  to download a membership form.

Find out more about James Watt at Kinneil at www.kinneil.org.uk/jameswatt

Other newspapers have also featured articles on Kinneil. In 2009, the Glasgow-based Herald dubbed the estate as one of Scotland’s most spookiest places. We’ve also featured in the Observer – and, more recently, in the posh Independent newspaper in a story on volunteering. And there’s more on the BBC website too.

It seems the media love to write about Kinneil – and we thank them for their support.

There are also some lovely amateur reviews online, via sites like Tripadvisor.

If you spot press coverage about Kinneil House, Estate and Foreshore, tell us about it. Email: info@kinneil.org.uk

Once printed, punch a hole through the top of the pages, thread through some string and hang from somewhere suitable at home. Enjoy.

The Calendar is free – but you can “pay” us by clicking the link below and creating a free Tweet or Facebook mention to give us some publicity! No cash needed!

In return for a few clicks, you’ll get the link to the PDF to download the Calendar!

Simple.

Any problems, let us know: email: publicity@kinneil.org.uk

I wanted to look back a little on the great year we’ve just had . . . I hope you’ll agree it was very successful.

We had our first James Watt Supper last January. This couldn’t have happened without the fantastic support of our trustees, particularly Anna and Khush, who helped with the catering. See pictures at http://bit.ly/jameswattsupper

February saw members gather at the museum to see the launch of a revamped audio visual theatre, featuring equipment bought through our fundraising. http://bit.ly/moviemagic

In March, Historic Scotland featured Kinneil House in its magazine and we launched our new Facebook pages at www.fb.com/kinneil . The Friends also started up a sub-group, headed by Peter Mole, to work with Falkirk Council on improvements to Kinneil Foreshore.

Meanwhile myself and Tom Sargent from the committee went on PQASSO training, to improve the way we do things. The same month, another committee member, Ian Shearer, met historian Adam Hart-Davis at the launch of a new James Watt exhibition in the Science Museum in London. http://bit.ly/wattexhibition

April saw our annual litter pick with friends from Bo’ness Community Council and Bonnie Bo’ness. http://bit.ly/kinneil-litter It came just in time for us to re-start open days at Kinneil House. 2011 was a bumper year, seeing more than 2000 people visit the House across six afternoons, up nearly 25 per cent on the previous year. http://bit.ly/housenumbers

The spring also saw us bid for funding: to make a film about Kinneil, to do improvements on the Foreshore, and to do a consultation project (supported by the Growing Communities Fund – www.kinneil.org.uk/deanfield ). We generated more than £9000 for the latter two, but still have to secure money to make the film. That’s a project for 2012!

May saw more freaky weather – and the cancellation of a fundraising stall at the Bo’ness Victorian Street Fair. But we weren’t quiet for long.

By June we were helping to publish a new guide book for children, called Kinneil 4 Kids. Written by youngsters at Bo’ness Public School, it was launched with a party in the school – and was well received by local people. Copies were sold via the school and through Kinneil House and Museum.

Our summer history walk in July continues to grow in popularity. Last year, more than 100 people (the best numbers yet) came out to tour Kinneil Estate and visit Kinneil House. A big thank you to Ian Scott for taking the walk and to our trustees who directed all the visiting cars! The month also saw us start work on the aforementioned consultation project, focusing in on local people in the Deanfield area – www.kinneil.org.uk/deanfield. The project continued over the autumn, and we’ll report on the consultation very soon.

August saw the annual Kinneil Heritage Day. Falkirk Community Trust are looking to refresh this. If you have ideas for future events, drop me a line: info@kinneil.org.uk – or call me. Any ideas are very welcome.

September saw our annual Big Roman Week – to promote the area’s Roman links – www.kinneil.org.uk/bigromanweek – with lots of great events at Kinneil and elsewhere. We’re hoping to make the event bigger and better in 2012.

In October we held our Annual Fundraising Dinner and raised £500. A big thank you to all the members who attended and contributed prizes. Our Halloween Kinneil House opening was also great fun and many families dressed up.

The highlight of the year for me personally was meeting the Cashier of the Bank of England at the James Watt cottage in the estate in November. Chris Salmon paid us a visit to help launch a new £50 note featuring James Watt and Matthew Boulton. http://bit.ly/zcxIMq . . . Sadly, I didn’t get free samples!

Members also went “brashing” to cut down overgrown trees on the Foreshore. It was a great day out – and made even better with free soups at the Corbie Inn nearby! A Friends request for new tarmac at the old Kinneil Pit site was also followed up by Falkirk Council. It’s now easier to park your car just off Kinneil Road. The month also saw us fundraising. Again bad weather hit us – but we were able to raise around £90 setting up a stall inside Bo’ness Library.

And so to December, when we looked back on a very successful year. As well as increased visitors to Kinneil House, we also saw increased visitors to our website – www.kinneil.org.uk/2011-in-review – many of them coming via Facebook.

Of course, none of this wouldn’t have happened without the hard work of The Friends of Kinneil committee – or Trustees to give them their “posh” name – and the support of members and partners.

A big thank you to our great committee: Adrian Mahoney who delivers our website, PR and media work; David Broughton who looks after our money; John Gillespie, our diligent secretary; Anna McKenzie, our membership secretary; Peter Mole, who chairs our Foreshore Group; Ian Shearer, who drove our James Watt work in 2011; Tom Sargent, a former GP, who inspires us and is on hand to do first aid; Angus Smith, who keeps us right on flora and fauna; Khush Murtaza, who organises the fundraising stalls at events and sales at house openings and Stuart McMartin, who gives up so much of his time to support the charity. We also have recruited a new committee member, Ross Fenwick. Welcome Ross.

Now to 2012.

MARIA FORD, Chair, The Friends of Kinneil

AROUND 17,000 VISITORS

The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This site was viewed about 17,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 6 sold-out performances for that many people to see it. In 2011, there were 68 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 250 posts. There were 215 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 34mb. That’s about 4 pictures per week. The busiest day of the year was June 26th with 254 views. The most popular post that day was Home.

WHAT PEOPLE SEARCHED FOR

Some visitors came searching, mostly for

• kinneil house
• james watt
• friends of kinneil
• kinneil estate and
• kinneil.

WHERE THEY CAME FROM

Most visitors came from The United Kingdom. The United States & Germany were not far behind.

HOW THEY GOT HERE

The top referring sites in 2011 were:

www.facebook.com, www.historic-scotland.gov.uk, www.en.wikipedia.org, www.falkirk.gov.uk, and www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk.

OUR MOST POPULAR PAGES

1. Home
2. Attractions
3. Getting there
4. Remembering James Watt
5. Kinneil House open days in 2011

VISITORS to historic Kinneil House in Bo’ness soared in 2011, according to the charity The Friends of Kinneil.

The group said 2025 people toured inside the mansion in the past year, compared to 1622 visitors in 2010 – an increase of nearly 25 per cent.

The charity said strong media support and extra campaigning through social networks like Twitter and Facebook helped boost attendance. It is now planning a further series of free open days for 2012. Details will be available soon at www.kinneil.org.uk .

Maria Ford, the chair of The Friends of Kinneil, said: “The numbers relate to visitors seeing inside Kinneil House during the five free open afternoons we run in conjunction with Historic Scotland – and visitors to the building during a history tour of the estate in the summer.  For six afternoons, these are impressive figures.

“Of course many more people tour the grounds of the House, and visit the surrounding Kinneil Estate, throughout the year. It’s a fantastic place to visit at any time."

Local volunteers work with staff from Historic Scotland to provide free access to the building during special open days. The mansion includes some of the best renaissance wall paintings in Scotland, and was recently used to inspire the restoration of the Palace at Stirling Castle.The House was closed to regular visitors in the 1980s, ironically due to poor visitor numbers. Since 2006, The Friends of Kinneil has been working with Historic Scotland to provide better access.

Kinneil House dates back to the 15th century and was remodelled during the 16th and 17th centuries. It was home to the powerful Dukes of Hamilton and was built close to the line of the Roman Antonine Wall.The wider Kinneil Estate boasts the remains of a cottage used by inventor James Watt, the ruins of a medieval church and the remnants of a Roman fortlet.

Mrs Ford added: “The growing interest in Kinneil House and its wider estate also shows through the numbers of visits to our website: www.kinneil.org.uk. In 2010, we had 12190 ‘views’. That grew to 17,508 in 2011 – and there’s still a few days of the year to go. That’s an increase of more than 43 per cent.

“Again sites like Facebook – and people sharing information about us on social networks – drove traffic to our website. And the support of our friends in the traditional media has also been brilliant. It’s great to have so many people interested in what’s happening at Kinneil. We hope the trend continues in 2012.”

She continued: “We’ll re-start our open days at Kinneil House in the spring. However, the surrounding parkland is open throughout the year, as is the lovely Kinneil Museum, which boasts an audio-visual show and hands-on exhibits. The museum is normally open from Monday to Saturday afternoons through the year (with a closure for the New Year holidays). Admission is free.”

For more information visit www.kinneil.org.uk  – or “like” the charity at its Facebook page www.facebook.com/kinneil  to get regular updates.

Figures supplied by Historic Scotland and The Friends of Kinneil www.kinneil.org.uk/friends

* Guided walk of Kinneil Estate, including tour inside Kinneil House.

The Bo’ness parkland is wonderful to visit in the wintertime, with lovely Kinneil Museum (pictured right) open throughout the year (from Mon-Sat, 12.30 p.m. to 4 p.m.) Best of all admission to the park and museum is free of charge.

This yuletide the museum is offering great Christmas gifts – from Bo’ness DVDs and books, through to pot pourri and even festive hampers  - made to order.  Pop in for a tour, have a great day out, and pick up some stocking fillers at the same time.

To visit, Kinneil check out our “Getting there” page  - www.kinneil.org.uk/map

You’ll also find more information on all the attractions within the estate on this website – www.kinneil.org.uk/attractions

We’ll deliver for free to addresses in Bo’ness – all you’ll have to pay is the total price for the cards. If you live outside Bo’ness, email us for a final price: publicity@kinneil.org.uk We have limited stocks of both types of cards, so order soon to ensure you’re not disappointed. We’ll also be selling cards (stocks permitting) at a charity stall at the switch-on of the Christmas lights in Bo’ness on Saturday, November 26.

Our large Christmas cards priced at £1 each

Our smaller Christmas cards priced at 80p each

Other ways to support us this Yuletide!

You can also visit our new e-store to order your Christmas goodies! You can help us to raise valuable funds today by shopping online – and you won’t spend any more than going to the retailer’s website directly. See http://www.spendandraise.com/kinneil/

The Friends of Kinneil charity is teaming up with Falkirk Council to do environmental works on the foreshore area at Kinneil. They’re also asking the charity’s members – and other volunteers – to come along and help.

Brashing is a forestry term when a tree has its lower branches cut off. It stops young branches interlocking as they get bigger and also allows for the tree to be inspected for any signs of disease or pests. If you would like to do some "brashing" on Saturday, meet The Friends at the Snab Lane Car Park at 10 a.m. You’ll be given a demonstration and the appropriate equipment.

Tea, coffee & biscuits will be provided at noon. We’ll finish around 2 p.m.  Volunteers will also have the chance to get some soup at the nearby Corbie Inn for just £1 (to warm them up after their hard work.) Children can attend as long as they are accompanied by a responsible adult.

For insurance purposes, volunteers need to fill out a form – and bring this along to the event. Download the form here (PDF)  (Extra copies of this form will be available on Saturday).