A variety of resources for Schools are available at the Museum.

For more information email the museum ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) or read the information below.

Visit our museum display, which exhibits ancient artefacts found in the local area. These are supplemented by a collection of hands-on objects.  To actually hold an unusual object can be a truly memorable experience.  Children can feel the smoothness of a Stone Age axe-head, play music on a cow horn, smell the resin used to bind a harpoon head to its shaft.  At first hand, this is an exciting learning experience for children.  Your class can have a guided tour around the gallery which can be focused on particular subjects, or we can offer something more general.  All tours can include a handling session.

Project Loan boxes are available for schools and other organisations to borrow.  Project boxes contain replicas and hands-on activities, information, activity information and worksheets, resources and teachers guides.  All project loan boxes are curriculum focused.  There are currently 5 boxes covering the different Scottish pre-historic and historical periods.  These are:  

• Mesolithic (Hunter gatherers)
• Neolithic (Early Farmers)
• Bronze Age (Metal workers and Monument builders)
• Dalriada (Dunadd Fort)
• The Vikings

New for mid 2009, dependent upon funding there will be two further boxes: Iron Age and Early Medieval.

Through the project loan box collection, children have the opportunity to study the past through a sensory approach.  They are provided with information in booklet form, text, pictures and photographs which link to the associated artefacts within the project loan box.

A popular resource is our award-winning simulated dig - a hands on approach to learning about Scotland's first people - the hunter, fisher, gatherers - and their environment.  Children excavate the earth as an archaeologist would; collecting, recording, interpreting and presenting their evidence.  Bone harpoon heads, stone whistles, seal bones, seashells, flint arrow heads paint a picture of Scotland around 9000 years ago.  How different life was - no supermarket, petrol station or school!  Ideal for primary age children, but also used successfully with early secondary pupils.  Includes a 5-14 teachers pack with supporting information indicating levels and strands, teachers notes and extension ideas.
 
 

Prehistoric monuments are strewn throughout the Kilmartin Glen and no visit is complete without a visit to at least one of them.  We can arrange guided visits for school parties to Dunadd Fort, the capital kingdom of Dalriada where children can re-enact the crowning of early kings, with the help of cow horns, boars' tusks and wolf skins.  Tours to the standing stones and cairns can also be organised, where children can enter 5,000 year old tombs, search for carvings of axe heads and spirals as well as trying jet necklaces and Bronze Age cists (coffins) for size.  Other tours can be arranged, or if you prefer to take pupils yourself, a teachers guide is available.

Hands-on activities and replica collection
During a school visit, various hands-on activities can be arranged.  These range from deciphering the runics, peg loom weaving, pottery making, fire making, cordage making with nettles and reeds, grinding corn the prehistoric way, and (by special arrangement) flint knapping.  We have a large collection of replica objects including antler harpoon points, stone axes, pottery, bronze axes and swords.  So during the school visit, a variety of handing sessions can be arranged during which participants learn how these objects might have been made and used thousands of years ago. 

Other Resources 

• Edited video of Columba Voyage - a 20 minute edited version of the re-enactment of Columba's voyage from Ireland to Scotland in a skin boat, staged by Kilmartin House Museum in 1997.
• Edited video of cist excavation - in 1997 a Bronze Age cist (coffin) was found close to Kilmartin village.  The cist still contained human remains - including a well preserved skull.  This video records the excitement of local children upon seeing the excavation take place.
• Celtic Journeys, a 5-14 resource pack produced by the Action of Churches Together in Scotland and published in 1997 by the Scottish Consultative Council on the Curriculum.  The pack explores the contribution made by early saints to the society and culture on which Scotland is founded. Information and worksheets on sea travel supplied by Kilmartin House Museum.

Schools Prehistory Days

In the summer of 2008 the Museum staged a series of Prehistory Open Days which saw demonstrators from all over Britain come to show their skills to more than 300 children.  Activities included flint knapping, fire making and cordage with John & Val Lord, bronze coin striking with Neil Burrage, ‘Prehistoric’ music making with Bob Pegg, pottery making with Julia Hamilton and a chance to see some prehistoric cooking!  This year, 2009, we will be staging a series of early medieval activities to tie in with our Homecoming Project.    

To find out more details of future events please contact: Anne Smart, Administrator, Kilmartin House Museum, Kilmartin, Argyll. Tel: 01546 510278. E-mail:  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it or check the events page of this web site.

Charges for schools resources

   
For more details please e-mail  This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it  

Kilmartin House Museum also runs a series of holiday activities for children so don’t get bored when you are not in school!

(see events calendar for more details)