📚 Portora Royal School

Portora Royal School located in Enniskillen, County Fermanagh, Northern Ireland, was one of the five "free schools" founded by royal charter in 1608, by James I, making it one of the oldest schools in Ireland at the time of its closure. Originally called Enniskillen Royal School, the school was established some ten years after the Royal Decree, in 1618, 15 miles outside Enniskillen at Ballybalfour under the direction of Sir William Cole, before moving to Enniskillen in 1661. It was not until 1778 that the school moved to its final location on Portora Hill, Enniskillen, where the nucleus of the later all boys school was built. The school admitted a mixture of boarders and day pupils for much of its history, but became a day school in the 1990s.