Voyages to Schools 1999 and 2000

'I should like to express our gratitude to you and your crew for giving the Luing schoolchildren and their staff the unique opportunity of witnessing the arrival of the 'Aileach' at Ardinamir in June. I'm sure we shall always remember the sight of your historic craft coming into sight, powered by the crew of oarsmen. The school was very proud to see the article and photograph of the event in the Oban Times. Thank you also for your study packs, which were extremely useful in our classwork. Our Environmental Studies curriculum includes a regular programme of study of local history, and the experience of seeing part of our island history brought to life has been most valuable to our pupils.'

'The children were able to climb aboard the galley and helped put up the sail. They were impressed by how difficult this would have been out at sea! They explored the galley thoroughly, feeling what it would be like to steer her and row her. They were not impressed by the fact that the crew would have had to sleep on the boat at times - it just did not seem warm enough or soft enough! Obviously the children learnt a lot more from the experience of being on the boat than they ever would from a history book. They had a great time and our visit was a very worthwhile learning experience. When we got back to the classroom they enjoyed making the model of the galley in the educational pack. This was a useful follow up to their visit as it reinforced what they had just seen.'

'We thoroughly enjoyed the visit as did the whole island. The crew were really friendly and the children learned a great deal. Lots of stimulation led to discussions as to how the birlinn differed from a Viking galley and we followed Aileach's progress via Argyll On-line, which helped the children's IT skills. Learning was further enhanced by the excellent Teacher's Pack and by the last day of summer we had a wonderful fleet of galleys 'sailing' on blue paper in the 'big room'.