Belhaven Hill School

Dunbar

Founded in 1923, Belhaven Hill is one of Scotland's leading independent prep schools, offering an exceptional co-educational boarding and day education for children aged 4–13. Set in a spectacular location on the East Lothian coastline overlooking Belhaven Bay and the iconic Bass Rock, the school provides an inspiring environment in which children thrive.

Guided by its core values of Courage, Creativity and Courtesy, Belhaven nurtures confident, curious and compassionate young people. Its distinctive fortnightly boarding model provides structured boarding with regular exeat weekends, ensuring full immersion in school life alongside frequent time at home with family. This creates a strong sense of community and belonging. Combining over a century of educational excellence with a forward-thinking approach, Belhaven equips pupils with the mindset and skills to embrace the opportunities and challenges of the modern world, preparing them for the UK's leading senior schools and lives of purpose, confidence and kindness.

Gender	Co-ed (Prep)
Boarding/Day	Boarding
Age Range	4 – 13
Roll Size	145 (Prep)
Entrance Exam	No

Welcome to Belhaven Hill School's 'My Top Schools' page. Belhaven is one of just a handful of standalone, full fortnightly co-educational boarding prep schools left in the UK. It is a place of extraordinary warmth and vitality precisely because it is a full boarding school: the beautiful old family house perched above Belhaven Bay on the East Lothian coastline, a school for 103 years and counting, is a home with classrooms, as distinct from a school with dormitories. The ethos is one of bravery and the instinct is to welcome challenge as a vital precursor to progress: for this to work, pastoral care has to be, and is, outstanding. Happy and adventurous children build relationships with boarding staff that matter - the trust that develops encourages a willingness to 'have a go', and those experiences - surfing at the Bay, climbing a munro in the Highlands, sailing at Whiteadder, skiing at Glenshee or just sightseeing in nearby Edinburgh - lead to a sense of ease in the classroom. Happy and confident children learn well and those that benefit from the breadth of a truly staggering co-curricular offering are more resilient to the challenges of adolescence: the best protection against the temptation of escaping to the virtual world is the number of real-life alternatives to which your child will willingly say 'Yes'.

Neil Tomlin OBE

Headmaster

Annual Fees

School Fees for the Academic Year 2026/2027 are as follows (inclusive of VAT at 20%):

Prep School Fee

Boarding (all year groups) £13,600 per term

Form 5 Day (Primary 4 / Year 4) £8,600 per term

Form 4 Day (Primary 5 / Year 5) £9,850 per term

Forms 3-1 Day (Primary 6 / Year 6 - Primary 8 / Year 8) £11,100 per term

Pre Prep Fee

Boarding (Form 6 (Primary 3 / Year 3) £13,600 per term

Reception £5,100 per term

Form 8 (Primary 1 / Year 1) £5,700 per term

Form 7 (Primary 2 / Year 2) £5,700 per term

Form 6 (Primary 3 / Year 3) £6,100 per term

All fees shown are annual and are inclusive of VAT.

Boarding Fees£40,800 per annum

Boarding Fees (International)£40,800 plus international fee of 3,000 per annum

Day Fees£15,300-33,000 per annum

Boarding at Belhaven Hill School

Belhaven's boarding represents one of the last remaining offers of its kind in the UK. Full fortnightly boarding is the only option beyond daily attendance, and this guarantees that evenings and weekends (alternate 'weekends in') are compulsory for all. This means that friendships thrive in a school in which everyone has a pastoral role: boarding is the best way to enjoy the full range of activities on offer. The Belhaven Award, the Adventurous Leaders programme and the Edinburgh Food and Drink Academy are all part of a comprehensive life skills programme that ensures that pupils are well prepared for the opportunities that lie ahead at Britain's leading secondary schools. Most of the school's leavers go on to boarding schools in Scotland and England, with popular destinations being Ampleforth, ESM, Eton, Downe House, Gordonstoun, Loretto, Marlborough, Merchiston, Oundle, Radley, Rugby, St Mary’s Calne and Ascot, Sedbergh, Sherborne Schools, Stowe, Strathallan, The Edinburgh Academy, Tudor Hall, Uppingham and Winchester.

Number of Boarders96

Boarders67%

Nationalities5

International Boarders10%

Strengths at Belhaven Hill School

Belhaven's strengths stem from its full fortnightly boarding offering and stunning coastal location. Time and space to play in a beautiful place create the opportunities for deep and lasting friendships to take root and flourish: the freedom to enjoy a traditional childhood in a school with a progressive and holistic approach to education forges memories to last for a lifetime.

Fortnightly Boarding
Fortnightly boarding at Belhaven is the only boarding offer and therefore a considerable strength. With 67% of the Prep School fortnightly boarding, expectations, routines and boundaries are clear: this is the essential triad of success for boarders of Prep School age. All boarding pupils know that they will be together for the eleven nights in: sharing dorms for the term and developing deep and lasting friendship through the shared adventures of boarding life on the East Lothian coast.
Award Winning
In 2023, Belhaven was shortlisted as one of the leading Independent Schools in the country by the Independent Schools of the Year Awards, and Christine Fairbairn, who is now approaching her 46th year of working at Belhaven, was awarded the 'Unsung Hero' award by the same body. In 2025, Belhaven won The Week's 'Best of the Best' awards for 'Best for Outdoor Pursuits' (see Outdoor for more detail) and in 2026, was commended for its Digital Learning by the same publication.
Digital Learning
In October 2025, Belhaven's Makerspace was opened. This sustainably built two classroom block provides start of the art classroom facilities for the teaching of STEAM: with Art and Design in a 'messy space' and STEM in the next door 'clean space'. Projects are initiated in one and finished in the other. The building will be open to public use as well as it features an accessible toilet and kitchen space - the hope is that local businesses, junior coding clubs and computer lessons for the elderly will be regular features of this new feature of the community, which was built courtesy of funds raised from the Belhaven community during the Centenary Campaign.
Outdoor Pursuits
Belhaven's partnership with local ethical adventure company Ocean Vertical has enabled the creation of our 'Adventurous Leaders' programme. Pupils in Form 1 (Year 8) are challenged with a series of physical tests defined by the school's coastal location and encouraged to work in teams to overcome them. The course culminates in a munro challenge. Now approaching its fourth year, this has become an eagerly anticipated feature of a Belhavian's final year at Prep school and encourages the children to continue to say yes to challenging opportunities at their senior schools.
Outstanding Location
Overlooking the beautiful expanse of Belhaven Bay, Belhaven benefits enormously from its coastal location. The annual 'beach day' is eagerly anticipated, as are the biennial 'Three Rivers Run' opportunities, when all pupils wade through tidal streams and revel in the coastal air. Only 20 minutes to central Edinburgh on the East Coast mainline and next to the A1 for easy access both North and South, the school is just 45 minutes from Edinburgh Airport. With an accompanied train service to London for exeats, weekend buses to Dumfries, Perth and Stonehaven, and daily buses around East Lothian, the Scottish Borders and North Northumberland, it is easy for families to access a Belhaven education. Sandwiched between the North Sea and the Lammermuir Hills but so close to the cultural centre of Scotland's capital, the pupils relish the myriad opportunities presented by Belhaven's location.
Value Added
Belhaven's own award scheme, the Belhaven Award, has recently congratulated its first ever Gold certificate recipient. Every pupil is encouraged to undertake 21 challenges, categorised under the school's three values of Courtesy, Courage and Creativity. Charitable enterprise, physical and cerebral challenges are all included, and valuable life skills learnt as a result. The most recent addition has been the cookery skills course in partnership with the Edinburgh Food and Drink Academy - a six week course that teaches how to adopt a balanced diet as well as the skills that accompany hygienic food preparation.

Latest events and open days

26 September 2026