https://www.ukboardingschools.com/news/queen-margarets-centenary-moves-pitlochry/#.XGADRPZ2tjo
100 years ago this month Queen Margaret’s School, York moved to Atholl Palace in Pitlochry, Scotland. To commemorate the anniversary there has been a special assembly and a Pitlochry House Art and Music Evening. We have also invited all the girls on an exciting trip to Pitlochry in April where they can experience the beautiful landscape first hand and see the Queen Margaret’s stained glass window in Pitlochry Church.
Mr William Grant, Head of Pitlochry House, has prepared an interesting account of the how the School came to be relocated and what life was like for the girls at Pitlochry:
Originally, Queen Margaret’s School was not based in Escrick; the school was initially established in Scarborough on a hillside beside the North Sea. A hundred years ago, that idyllic setting proved to be a source of considerable danger due to the Scarborough Bombardment.
Luckily, no Queen Margaret’s girls were hurt in the bombardment, but the school building was damaged: The windows of the main building had all been smashed by the blasts, and Queen Margaret’s Hall – the original Hall House – had its roof blown off. Therefore, it was up to the Headmistress, Miss Fowler, and the Bursar to look for an alternative site for the school.
Despite the heavy snow of that winter, less than a month after the December bombardment, on the 14th January 1915, the school reopened in the Atholl Palace Hotel. It was a most imposing building in the town of Pitlochry in the heart of Scotland.
The Atholl Palace, grand as it is, was not designed as a school, and for some girls there were 102 steps from the bedroom to the bathroom. Nevertheless, the girls enjoyed their time there. They could go tobogganing in the snow in the winter, they had picnics in the summer; there were plays and dances and sports matches, and Queen Margaret’s life continued.
Queen Margaret’s School spent four and a half years in Pitlochry, which was when we began to build up our strong links with Scotland. The names of three of our houses commemorate that time – Pitlochry itself, Garry and St Aidan’s. Garry is the name of the river where the girls often went for picnics, and St Aidan is one of the most significant Scottish saints.
The School also built up strong links with the local community in Pitlochry: when the time came for Queen Margaret’s to return to Scarborough, practically the whole town came to the farewell party in the Atholl Palace Hotel. The School put up a stained glass window in the Church to thank the town for its hospitality, and in return the townspeople of Pitlochry presented the School with this this splendid silver cup as a prize for lacrosse.