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Helenslee House / Keil School

The building is by J.T.Rochead, with later modifications and additions by John Honeyman; see its listed building report: Link

Honeyman's work was carried out in order to make the building into a suitable mansion house for Peter Denny, and included the ornate western entrance and the taller part of the building at the back. Peter Denny belonged to a family that was pre-eminent in the local shipbuilding industry: see NS4075 : The Helenslee Family Memorial and NS3975 : Statue of Peter Denny. A little further down the hill, NS3975 : Levenford House was built for James Denny, of the same family (NS4075 : Memorial to James Denny).

[As an aside, it is worth mentioning a fact that will now be little remembered: in his "Dumbarton Ancient and Modern" (1893), Donald MacLeod, writing about Helenslee House, records that "near the residence there is a fernery, which contains possibly the finest collection of New Zealand ferns in Great Britain". The fernery (now long gone) is described in more detail in that work; for example, it was about 51 feet long by 30 feet broad, and its floor was sunk below the level of the surrounding ground. It contained about sixty species, ranging from small ferns to a Dicksonia tree fern that stood 15 feet high. Compare the comments at Link on the Victorian "fern craze".]

From the mid-1920s, Helenslee House was the main building of Keil School. The school had its beginnings elsewhere, and started as the Kintyre Technical School, based at Keil House, close to Keil Point (NR6707, at the southern tip of Kintyre, near Southend). At the time of writing, the ruins of the original school buildings can still be seen there: NR6707 : Keil School ruins, NR6707 : Keil school, NR6707 : Remains of Keil School, and NR6707 : Keil ruins.

[The name "Keil" had long been associated with that area; for example, it appears, "as Keill", on Roy's Military Survey of Scotland (1740s-50s). The name has its roots in the nearby Cill Choluim-Chille (St Columba's Chapel), as is clear from the following intermediate form: NR6707 : Kilcolmkeil Churchyard, Southend. For the chapel, see, for example, NR6707 : Gravestones inside St Columba's Chapel and NR6707 : St Columba's Church.]

The school was founded at Keil House in 1915 as the result of bequests by Sir William Mackinnon and his nephew, Duncan Macneill. However, the buildings at that original site were destroyed by fire, and Keil School relocated, in 1925, to the building shown in the present photograph, Helenslee House. Except for a period during the Second World War, when the pupils were evacuated to a safer area, the school would remain here until it finally closed.

[Helenslee House itself was damaged by fire in January 2013, some time after the present picture was taken; while trying to bring the fire under control, several fireman were injured by a ruptured hose.]

During the time when the school was located here, the south-western corner of the building housed the school's Willox Library. Those of its rooms that were used as classrooms were given geographical names (Dumfries, Galloway, Wigtown, Renfrew, Clackmannan, etc.), a practice that would be extended to some of the ancillary school buildings (with classrooms called Nairn, Moray, Argyll, Perth, etc.) that were later built in the extensive school grounds.

Elsewhere in the grounds, existing buildings were adapted; for example, to the north, the mansion house's stable block became the school's technical block, and later accommodated boarding pupils: NS3875 : Former stables and technical block. Likewise, the mansion's lodge, on NS3875 : Helenslee Road, would become the caretaker's house: NS3875 : Former lodge of Helenslee House.

As for the buildings that were built for the school: immediately adjacent to the main building, on the right (north), was a gym hall / assembly hall (NS38687507), now demolished. To the rear (the west) was a large dinner hall and kitchen block (NS38637509), linked to the main building by a covered walkway; these have also been demolished, so that the building appears much as it would have done in 1925 (except that much of the uppermost part of the building has been removed since the school closed).

Other structures, further from the main school building, were built or adapted, some as classrooms, others to accommodate boarding pupils (see, for example, NS3875 : Helenslee Road).

As a result of financial difficulties, Keil School closed in 2000. As the photograph indicates, a new housing development is taking shape here; for views of that development, see NS3874 : Keil Mansions and NS3874 : New housing development in Dumbarton.

The road in front of the building is now called Keil Gardens. On the grassy area that can be seen in the foreground, on the right (compare NS3875 : Keil Gardens), there was formerly a statue of the above-mentioned Sir William Mackinnon; after the closure of the school, the statue was moved to Kinloch Park in Campbeltown (NR71972063). This statue, like its subject, was well-travelled; it had been brought to Helenslee from Mombasa in the 1960s. The listed building report for the statue provides further details: Link