Now a six-year comprehensive secondary school located in the Culduthel area of south Inverness (Highland), the Academy was opened in 1792 to combine and replace Inverness Grammar School (teaching only Latin and Greek) and other local schools such as those for teaching mathematics and writing. The Grammar School had probably evolved from an early-16th C. song school at the former Dominican Friary in the town. The school became a 'Royal' Academy in 1793, when a charter was purchased from King George III. In the early days, pupils were mainly boys, but some girls attended. The school has been fully mixed since the early 20th C.
The original 1792 building was in New Street, soon to be renamed Academy Street, but in 1895 the school moved to a new site in the Crown area, then being developed. Extensions were added in 1913 (art and science), 1925 (primary school, closed 1960) and 1961 (school hall and classrooms). It became one of several comprehensive secondary schools in the city when a new building was opened at Culduthel in 1977, to be replaced in 2016 by the present (fourth) building. Run by the local authority, the school now serves the areas of Hilton, Lochardil, and Holm, the new housing on the hillside south of the city, and also the rural areas to the southeast of Loch Ness. It also houses subject teaching in Gaelic for fluent speakers. The school roll is currently over 1000 pupils (2020).
Significant headmasters (known as Rectors) include James Weir (1792 - 1793), Alexander Nimmo (1805 - 1811), William J. Watson (1894 - 1909) and Donald John Macdonald (1944 - 1962).
