The school as an institution first opened in 1870, replacing the earlier Croft Lodge and a church school. The original Victorian building, overlooking Rothesay Bay, was extended and modernised in 1910 and again in 1938. It burned to the ground in 1954 and was replaced by a building of contemporary architecture, which opened in 1959. The present building at Townhead dates from 2007, on a joint campus site with Rothesay Primary School and Argyll College. It is one of a batch of joint campuses constructed around the west of Scotland from 2005 to 2009.