Kinneil House

The lands of Kinneil came to Walter Fitz Gilbert, ancestor of the Hamiltons, from Robert the Bruce in 1323, and Kinneil became the family's principal seat in the east of Scotland. A charter of 1474 names the castle of "Kynneil called Craig Lyown", alongside saltpans and land to be reclaimed from the sea. There was a deer park here early on — in November 1503 James IV sent a man to fetch deer nets from Kinneil to Falkland Palace, and the king came in July 1508 to look over Lord Hamilton's horses. James Hamilton, 1st Earl of Arran, died at Kinneil in 1529, though he wished to be buried at Hamilton. Just west of the house, across a narrow ravine, stands the roofless ruin of the former parish church, its west gable still upright.

The great builder was James Hamilton, 2nd Earl of Arran, Governor of Scotland after the death of James V. Timber came by boat from Leith in 1549 and 1550 for roofing, floors and panelling; the garden was improved for the spring of 1553 with hedges, marjoram and lettuce, and trees brought from Fife and Strathearn. In September 1553 Arran handed 44 shillings to the masons laying foundation stones for another part of the palace. His painted rooms survive: the vaulted Arbour Room, its decoration evoking verdure tapestry with vignettes of Samson and Delilah, Abraham and Isaac, David and Bathsheba and the Temptation of St Anthony; and a second chamber with the Good Samaritan, Lucretia, Saint Jerome and Mary Magdalene. The painter's name seems to be unrecorded.

Violence came repeatedly. The house stood empty on 4 February 1560 when French troops under d'Oysel attacked and burnt it. In May 1570 Regent Lennox damaged it with gunpowder and spoiled the lands after the assassination of Regent Moray at Linlithgow. Later it served as a place of confinement as much as comfort: the Earl of Gowrie was brought here in April 1584, stayed five days, and was taken on to Stirling for trial and beheading. James VI nonetheless banqueted here on 11 November 1583 and held court at Christmas-time in 1588, playing at cards with Roger Aston. The Arbour Room was redecorated around 1620, almost certainly by Valentine Jenkin, and the main house was rebuilt in 1677 by William Douglas, 3rd Duke of Hamilton.

Kinneil House stands to the west of Bo'ness in east-central Scotland, in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, and sits within a public park. Access to the interior, including the two painted rooms of the mid-16th-century east wing, is in Historic Environment Scotland's hands, so it is worth checking arrangements before you travel rather than assuming the doors will be open. Outside, look for the two rows of gunloops for early cannon in the older fabric, and the 1677 facade with its pair of stone staircases at the ends.

The park rewards an unhurried wander. It incorporates a section of the Roman Antonine Wall and the only example of an Antonine fortlet with visible remains. A short walk west, across a narrow ravine, brings you to the roofless parish church with its surviving west gable. One of its bells, apparently 15th-century, is preserved in the nearby Kinneil Museum, carrying an incomplete Lombardic inscription — "EN : KATARINA : VOCOR : VT : PER : ME : VIRGINIS ALME", or "Lo, Katherine I am called, that by me of the Blessed Virgin ..." — thought to have continued on a second, lost bell. A large stone cross from the same church is kept with the palace, and carved stones, including the armorial with the Hamilton motto "Through!" and Margaret Douglas's "Lock Sickar", are displayed in a cellar.