[1] The school as an institution first opened in 1870, replacing the earlier Croft Lodge and a church school.

[1] The original Victorian building, overlooking Rothesay Bay, was extended and modernised in 1910 and again in 1938.

It burned to the ground in 1954[1] and was replaced by a building of contemporary architecture, which opened in 1959.

The present building at Townhead dates from 2007,[2] on a joint campus site with Rothesay Primary School and Argyll College.

[1] It is one of a batch of joint campuses constructed around the west of Scotland from 2005 to 2009.