School History

 

Castle High School opened on 1st September 1985 when Dunlambert Boys’ Secondary School amalgamated with Graymount Girls’ Secondary School and Mountcollyer Secondary School.  The new school was  established on the Fortwilliam Park site of the former Dunlambert School, which was founded in 1958, and, at its peak, accommodated 1000 pupils.

 

 

Dunlambert was 'officially opened' the following year on March 1959 by the then Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, Lord Viscount Brookbrough.  The founding Principal of Dunlambert was Samuel Lynn and the Vice Principal was Bill Singer.  The last Principal of Dunlambert and the first Principal of Castle High was the well liked Bob Jones.

 

 

Graymount Intermediate School, Greencastle, Belfast was the first school of its kind for girls in Belfast, was opened on Tuesday 2nd May 1949 by Councillor Cheyne, Chairman of the Belfast Education Committee.  Councillor Cheyne said that Graymount was a school to be proud of.  Being the first indermediate school for girls, it was looked upon as a model for future schools.

 

 

Graymount was placed in a group of 10 schools which all reached 'a very high standard' also being one of a smaller group of schools which 'lead the field for the sheer educational value of their projects'.

 

 

"Graymount is not closing because the community found it inadequate for its needs - the quality of education offered in Graymount in all its aspects is not excelled anywhere."

 

"Castle High School wil provide the full width of opportunities and in the expertise, values and ideals of the Graymount Staff, and also in the use of the Residential Centre at Ballycastle, Graymount will live on in the new school."

 

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Castle High School is now the beneficiary of a remarkably historic site.  Within the school’s 8-acre grounds are the Celtic and Anglo-Norman remains of an original Dun, or Fort, flanked by a prehistoric souterrain. The fort was built in Elizabethan times by the Queen's favourite, Lord Essex.

 

 

The arches and pillars at each end of Fortwilliam Park are what is left of the grand entrances built by George Langry who owned the estate in the early 1800s. The site was later the home of the Clarke family associated with the famous Workman Clark Shipbuilding Company.

 

 

* Information on Mountcollyer coming soon*