Royal School Dungannon was founded in 1614 by King James I, one of five royal schools established across Ulster after the plantation. The original purpose was to provide an English-language Protestant education to the children of the planters and the loyal Irish; today it is a coeducational grammar school of around 950 pupils.
The main school building dates from the 1780s with later Victorian and twentieth-century additions, in dignified sandstone behind a long lawn. The grounds are not generally open to the public, but the architecture is best seen from Ranfurly Road. Old boys include the historian John Boyd Dunlop (inventor of the pneumatic tyre) and the poet Charles Maturin.