Risk Assessment

The Learning staff and Living History actors will prepare their own risk assessments for the activities they lead. All staff are Disclosure checked and have been through NTS in-house training courses.

Any handling of weapons will adhere to the NTS’s own weapons handling guidelines.

Culloden staff will establish themselves as the person in charge of the session but the class teacher will have responsibility for discipline throughout the visit.

NTS offers the following advice for teachers preparing their own risk assessments for a visit to the site:

We recommend that, wherever possible, group leaders make a preparatory visit to the property free of charge to familiarise themselves with the site and identify any potential dangers as well as to help plan the visit. We also recommend that you take note of the guidelines below and go to the National Trust for Scotland website for more information about the property, including access issues – www.nts.org.uk/Culloden or our education website www.ntseducation.org.uk. Please phone our Learning staff on 0844 493 2159 if you have any further queries.

• When getting off and on buses please be aware of other vehicles using the car park.
• A walk on to the battlefield may mean your group is outside for between half an hour and an hour. Please note that there is no shelter on this walk. Even in poor weather we feel that it is an important part of the Culloden experience as pupils will be able to feel what it might have been like for the soldiers in 1746.
• Please check the weather forecast the day before your trip and advise pupils and accompanying adults what they will need to wear. They will need a warm, waterproof jacket even during the summer as it is often windy. If it is to be a very hot day, consider wearing sunscreen and wearing something to cover up with e.g. a long sleeved shirt and a sunhat.
• You will walk on good paths but some of them may be muddy. Participants should wear old trainers or Wellingtons that have good treads. If a group walks off the paths on to the battlefield, they will experience uneven ground with tree stumps, heather of various heights, ditches and bogs.
• Please stay with your group at all times and be aware of where your pupils are. A regular count of your group as you progress round the battlefield and move around the Visitor Centre is advisable.
• The National Trust for Scotland recommends that you bring one adult for every ten children and that there should always be two adults present with your group.
• Culloden is a war grave site. Groups should be aware of this and move round the site quietly and with respect. This also contributes to the experience.

PLEASE NOTE: The new exhibition includes an ‘immersion’ theatre where a four-minute film, shown on four screens simultaneously and with surround sound, allows the visitor to experience a little of what it might have felt like to have been present at the battle of Culloden. This film carries the equivalent of a PG rating and may be too much for very sensitive pupils. We would encourage teachers to discuss taking their class through this experience with our Learning staff when booking, or to visit it themselves beforehand so that they can judge how their class might react. The immersion theatre can be bypassed if a school or teacher decides to do this.