Thurso, Ormlie Road, Thurso High School

Building Notes

In 1954 Basil Spence & Partners, along with Caithness County Architect, William Wilson, were commissioned by Thurso County Council to build a new high school. A large green-field site was chosen on the East side of County Road, to the South of the town. Officially opened in October 1958, Thurso is the most northerly secondary school on mainland Great Britain. The main campus is made up of a number of informally grouped buildings of varying heights surrounding a central courtyard. These include a four-storey classroom block, a two-storey administration and entrance building, a two-storey library and general-purpose block, and single storey blocks for technical, domestic science and science classrooms. There are also a dining hall, kitchen, gymnasium, medical rooms and a large assembly hall.

Each building is given individual surface treatment and clad in a combination of Caithness stone, polished stone, timber boarding, concrete slabs and roughcast render. The central courtyard has hard and soft landscaping and an ornamental pool that has now been drained.

Archive Details

The archive material housed at RCAHMS shows that the school was commisioned in two phases, the first completed in October 1958 and the second begun in May 1959, less than a year after its official opening. The reason for the extension to the school was the growth in Thurso and the surrounding area's population after the development of Dounreay nuclear power station. Although the school was built in anticipation of a population increase, the growth was greater and more rapid than expected, and at its peak Dounreay's staff of 2,400 people trebled the size of the town.

Archive Summary

The Sir Basil Spence Archive contains six black and white photographs of the exterior, which were taken shortly after the school was opened. The Spence Glover & Ferguson Collection, also held by RCAHMS, contains more than 300 working drawings, 38 photographs and 42 colour slides that relate to Thurso Academy. Drawings date from 1957 to 1961 and include plans and design details for both of the building phases. The drawings show that the school was planned so that the functions were segregated to avoid noise and smells from workshops or kitchens interfering with study classrooms.

This text was written as one of the outputs of the Sir Basil Spence Archive Project, supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund, 2005-08.