School Projects

We offer themed workshops for nursery, primary and secondary schools, co-inciding with specific exhibitions, objects or events within the house, grounds and island at large. We deliver sessions in school as well as hosting bespoke interactive visits at Mount Stuart.

Previous visits have ranged from:

o geometry and animation inspired by Martin Boyce’s An Inn For Phantoms Of The Outside And In;

o dressing up like Mary Queen of Scots while listening to a first-hand account of her execution;

o reading a Robert Burns poem in a book he personally annotated;

o exploring Victorian technology through riding in the first household lift;

o creating new work for portfolios in photography, art and design or hair and beauty

o examining how furniture has been upholstered.

All workshops are free for local schools and travel assistance may be available for schools which can demonstrate particular need.

Teacher CPD

If you are a teacher and have not previously visited, please do get in touch and we can arrange a house tour with opportunities to meet our team and discuss future projects.

Work experience & placements

For a number of years our partnership with Rothesay Academy has allowed us to welcome a number of students on work experience placements. These have ranged from taster weeks for those less sure of which career path they’d like to follow to more sustained opportunities for a full academic term on specific supported projects.

Tasks and roles regularly include: developing communication and customer service skills with the Guiding and Visitor Centre teams, hands-on experiences with the Garden and Maintenance teams; office support; working with the Education team with younger children, supporting exhibition installation or deinstallation.

The result of one specially tailored placement can be found here.

Bespoke Tours

Focused tours of the house and grounds are available for school, college and university groups at any time. These can range in style from end-of-year treats to subject specific study tours. Recent visits have included groups from course and programmes such as; MSc Tourism and Events (Glasgow Caledonian University); Sculpture and Environmental Art (Glasgow School of Art); Fine Art (Sculpture) (HFBK Hamburg); Museum Studies (Glasgow University); Open Palaces.