Dunoon Burgh Hall

History Hunters

1 June 2018 - 30 June 2018

Working with a filmmakers, a visual artist and a historian, pupils from Dunoon Primary School and Kirn Primary School researched the rich history of Dunoon.

Stories Stones and Bones – Year of History, Heritage and Archaeology

Around 100 pupils from Dunoon Primary School and Kirn Primary School researched the rich history of Dunoon.

Kirn Primary school pupils worked with visual artist Sandi Kiehlmann to make wonderful dioramas based on entertainment and leisure in Dunoon in the 20th century. They recreated grand balls in the Queens Hall with dancing guests in their finest clothes; the West Bay Lido with beach huts, deck chairs and hired rowing boats battling the Clyde’s waves. In one diorama children turn round and round on the rides outside the Argyll Hotel, whilst in another a band plays in the outdoor Pavilion as a steamship passes by. The movie theatre is adorned with a moving velvet curtain whilst another scene has an infamous local ride his horse through town.

Some of the pupils developed their dioramas into little animations filmed on the class iPad, with pupils lying on their back under a table to move the character sticks. Their wee movies were then projected onto the large class whiteboard for their screening

Dunoon Primary School pupils also worked with filmmaker Alasdair Satchel to create a film telling the story of the heritage of the town. You can watch this here:

We also ran a summer school to create individual films telling the history of the Burgh Hall







The project culminated in an exhibition and film screening in the Burgh Hall in June 2018.
At the end of the project we created postcard packs to celebrate this heritage and gave them to the pupils to post out to friends and family. These postcards can also be purchased in our online shop.

"I learned all about Garage band because I love music and I like to listen to different notes."
Emma
"I learned about camera angles. Researching, communication, perseverance and time management."
Hannah
"I learned about editing and sound."
Mark
"The best thing I learned was to speak in front of a camera. I have not done a news report before."
Rachel

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