I’ve tried to visualise the whereabouts of the school in Helensburgh that I dropped the young lady off at. It was a fairly large place, and I’m pretty sure it was a state school, so probably not the St. Brides you mention. I have a feeling it was close to the lochside on the main road, but it’s a long time ago and I might be wrong. I really must go and take a look around the next time I’m up that way.
Even now I, and possibly other habitués here, run for the hills at any mention of the two things in conjunction. Some of our fun posters invented a whole world of Scottish boarding houses for young women where the lady proprietors disciplined their tenants with tawses of every type, weight and number of tails you’ve ever heard of, and quite a few you haven’t! They even invented books on the subject. We’re not talking school boarding houses here, we’re talking boarding houses for adult women!