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The new school campus will be built near the current high school in Tobermory
Residents on Mull have lost a legal challenge to a council's decision to build a new school in the far north of the island.
Argyll and Bute Council plan to build the new £43m campus close to the current high school in Tobermory - the only high school on the island and a source of division among islanders.
Many parents wanted a more central location so that pupils in the south of the island would no longer have to travel by ferry to Oban for schooling and stay in hostels during the week.
But a judge at the Court of Session in Edinburgh dismissed the petition and said there was "no procedural unfairness" in the local authority's vote.
It brings an end to the judicial review - a type of legal case where a judge reviews the lawfulness of a decision or action made by a public authority.
Children on Mull have been divided by the location of the island's only high school for decades.
Pupils living in the north go to the school in Tobermory, but the commute is more than 90 minutes for those living in the south.
Most travel to Oban on the mainland and stay in hostels during the week.
Funding was secured in 2023 to build a "like-for-like" replacement school on the Isle of Mull to replace the dilapidated Tobermory High School, which also houses a primary and nursery school.
A number of sites where the new school could have been built were identified across the island.
Campaigners argued for a split option, with a new secondary school to be built in a more central location such as Craignure, while keeping a primary school in Tobermory.
But the council said splitting the campus would cost the authority an extra £12m, and that any further delay could jeopardise promised Scottish government funding.
This option would leave the island's most populated town, Tobermory, without a primary school.
Councillors voted to go ahead with building the new school in Tobermory, near to the existing school, in March last year.
The case was brought before Lord Cubie in October.
Though the judge noted in his ruling that the decision was "challengeable", he ultimately concluded the council's vote was fair.
