Mrs Brownlie is currently head teacher of Auchinraith Primary School in Blantyre, near Glasgow; it is hoped she will be in post in time for the start of the new academic year on Monday, August 18.

Her appointment as the campus head comes after parents of pupils at both Rothesay Primary and Rothesay Academy came round to the idea of an over-arching principal and a unified senior management team after some initial reservations about Argyll and Bute Council's view that a single building should have a single person in charge.

"I'm delighted to have been appointed," Mrs Brownlie told us, "and very excited about taking up the post in August.

"If I'm honest it was the post itself that was the big attraction for me - here is an opportunity to pull together the educational, social and emotional needs of Rothesay's children and young people, and I believe it will bring great benefits to both the school community and the wider community.

"I'm looking forward to working with the wider community to ensure that they feel ownership of the campus. It may be at the top of a hill, but I would like it to be at the heart of the local community."

Mrs Brownlie is not entirely unfamiliar to Bute, having visited on several occasions in recent years to indulge her pastimes of sailing and golf.

Brought up in Strathaven, she has been head of Auchinraith for the last four and a half years; before that she spent four years as head of Leadhills Primary at the southern tip of Lanarkshire.

She also has experience as an outdoor education teacher, and spent a year teaching in Africa.

Mrs Brownlie will not be the only new face at the Townhead campus after the summer holidays.

In addition to the retiral of Rothesay Academy rector Ken Moncrieff, two of the school's depute heads are moving on: Jim Bicker is also retiring, while Stewart Shaw has been appointed as the new rector of Dunoon Grammar School.

Mr Shaw will take up his new post in August after the retiral of Dunoon Grammar's long-serving head, Joe Rhodes.