Fordyce Academy

A school was founded about 1592 by Sir Thomas Menzies, laird of Durn, and the builder of Fordyce Castle, as a school for boys to prepare them for a life of learning, including possible entry to the University of Aberdeen. The site of the first schoolhouse in the village is unknown, but it was probably near the kirk, where Menzies provided for the boys to have seats in the Durn Aisle. He endowed his new school with an income to be paid to the schoolmaster from the lands of Little Goveny, a mill, and the mill lands of Baldavie and Petchaidlie. Menzies's foundation gained further endowments in the late 17th century. Walter Ogilvie of Reidhythe gave money to George Brown, the schoolmaster, to…