Keil School

Keil School, in Dumbarton, Scotland, opened on 29 November 1915 as Kintyre Technical College, Keil House, Southend, near Campbelltown in Argyll. After a fire destroyed the original building in Southend it was re-located and opened in Dumbarton as Keil School in 1925. The school took a lease on Helenslee House, a 50 acre site on the banks of the River Clyde. Helenslee House was originally the property of the shipbuilding family Dennys of Dumbarton.

In 1941, due to the school's high vulnerability during the Clydeside Blitz, including the destruction of nearby industrial centres such as Clydebank (only 16 buildings were left standing) and conflagrations at the Bowling Oil Refinery and the Tate & Lyle Sugar Refinery at Greenock, the school had to be evacuated and relocated in the safer surroundings of Balinakill House, Kintyre for the duration of the war.

Keil School was an independent secondary school with boarding and day pupils for around 200 pupils. It was an all-boys school up until 1978, when it became co-educational.

Keil School closed in July 2000. At its closure, when it had 54 boarders and 120 day pupils, it was described by The Scotsman as "One of Scotland's leading fee-paying schools". [Stuart Nicolson, "Last bell as top public school set for closure", "The Scotsman", Edinburgh, 5 April 2000., p.3.] The site is now being developed as housing.

Notes

"A History of Keil School" published in 1993, Author Roddy MacAskill - Printer by the Edinburgh Press Ltd.

External links

* [http://www.keilschoololdboysclub.co.uk/ Old boys club]
* [http://www.keilschool.woodrow.co.uk/ School website]