Situated just outside Scotland's capital city of Edinburgh, Merchiston Castle School has a 188 year history and a strong academic heritage. It has a long history of graduating students who have gone on to study at the world's leading universities, such as Cambridge and Oxford. The school was founded in May 1833 by the Scottish scholar Charles Chalmers, who rented Merchiston Castle, the home of John Napier, the mathematician and inventor of logarithms. Charles, the first headmaster, was an accomplished scholar of mathematics and science who pioneered the incorporation of mathematics and natural science into the Merchiston curriculum in the early 19th century, when most public schools in England were still studying traditional classical texts. Under his tutelage and leadership, students were prepared for the new era ahead of others.