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THE ROYAL SCHOOL OF DUNKELD

The Royal School of Dunkeld is one of the oldest schools in Scotland and is the first of a number of free schools created in the name of James VI of Scotland (later also King James I of England & Ireland). It was founded in 1567, just after the Scottish Reformation, which aimed to establish a school in every parish. It continues today as modern, non-denominational primary school within the council region of Perth and Kinross, serving the catchment area around Dunkeld and Birnam in Highland Perthshire.

The seeds of Scotland’s educational history were sown in the days of St. Columba in the latter half of the 6th century. One of Columba’s disciples established a monastic settlement near the Pictish fort on King’s Seat, overlooking the River Tay and present-day Dunkeld. The Abbots of Dunkeld were men of learning, including Columba’s biographer St. Adamnan, so a church school would have existed there by the end of the 8th century, teaching music and Latin for the chanting of psalms. After 1127, when David I conferred the title of Cathedral on the church of Dunkeld, some notable scholars were appointed as Bishops to the See. The best known was Gavin Douglas the Poet Bishop, who, according to Sir Walter Scott, “in a barbarous age, Gave rude Scotland Virgil’s page" . Such men nurtured a culture of learning in the area.

Bishop George Brown, Chancellor of Dunkeld Cathedral, founded a Grammar School in the early 16th century for the education of choristers. The precursor of today’s Royal School, this was located in the Cathedral Chapel of St. George until much of the Cathedral was destroyed in 1560 during the Scottish Reformation. A few years later, on 2nd February 1567, the Earl of Moray granted a Royal Charter in the name of King James VI of Scotland for a Grammar School "to be called for all time to come The Royal School of Dunkeld". At the same time the school came under the patronage of the Earl of Atholl and his successors and the original Royal Charter recording these words and deeds still resides in the archives at Blair Castle.

After the school was destroyed at the Battle of Dunkeld in 1689, pupils were accommodated in a building attached to the east gable of the Cathedral, the existence of which is still visible on the stonework. By 1798 the scholars numbered 80 in winter and 60 in summer, each paying 2/6d per quarter, and the schoolmaster’s annual salary was £34. During this century the school moved to a building at the foot of Cathedral Street, remaining there until 1891 when it relocated to Culloden House at the Cross. Both boys and girls were educated here, however in 1853 a girls’ school, endowed by Anne, Duchess of Atholl, was established nearby. When this closed in 1898 the girls rejoined the boys in the Royal Grammar School. By 1930 pupils from Dunkeld and schools on the other side of the river in Little Dunkeld and Torwood were brought together under one roof in the present building, which carries on the proud name and history of The Royal School of Dunkeld. The bishop's mitre in the school’s coat of arms recalls its Cathedral origins, as does its motto in Latin: "Procedite Honeste” (Proceed with Honour).

The Royal School of Dunkeld has educated the children of many ancient Highland Perthshire families, with a Prime Minister of Canada (Alexander Mackenzie) and a semi-finalist of The Great British Bake Off (Flora Shedden) among its former pupils. Now providing nursery and primary education for 180 children from Dunkeld, Birnam and district, it was a pioneer of the Eco-Schools movement and recipient of a permanent green flag for its environmental education. The school upholds a long tradition of participation in the Perthshire and Angus Provincial Mod, which helps to keep Gaelic alive in a region where it was still widely spoken until the early 20th century.