Page "High School of Dundee" Paragraph 11

In 1785, Dundee Academy was opened in the Nethergate, in a hospital building built by the Trinitarian Friars before the Reformation ; today it is the site of St Andrews Roman Catholic Cathedral.

This new school, also founded by the Council, was “ to instruct young gentlemen in mathematical learning, and the several branches of the science with which it is connected .” Its first rector, James Weir, described as “ a gentleman of considerable abilities, but rather a projector ,” took great interest in the problem of perpetual motion.

The school closed down altogether in 1795 after its second master, James Ivory, had gone to be a professor at the Royal Military College.

The academy re-opened in 1801, under Thomas Duncan, a brilliant mathematician: but after his appointment to the Regius Chair of Mathematics at the University of St Andrews in 1820 the school suffered.

The author Robert Mudie also taught at the Academy from 1808 to 1821.