Among the very best academic schools in Scotland, George Heriot’s School might not have the sporting pedigree of some of its rugby-obsessed neighbours- but the jewel of its sports department, in recent years, has to be the rowing club.
Founded in 1953, the history of the club centres around Bob Neill, a physics teacher who led the rowing programme for thirty-six years, winning three fours cup title at the National Schools’ Regatta between 1982 and 1990, plus a pair of victories in the girl’s equivalent in 1998 and 2000. This period also produced a pair of Olympians, as Benjamin Helm raced in Atlanta 1996 while Polly Swann won silver in Rio 2016 and finished fourth in Tokyo 2020.
Following Neill’s retirement, the programme fell into a tough period. However, after the appointment of James Davidson as the school’s first full-time head of rowing in 2015, the fortunes of the club have begun to turn. Within two years, the club had its first international competitor in a decade and following the pandemic, the club established themselves on the national scene, winning two National Schools’ championship events in 2022 and 2023, three junior internationals and four athletes earning NCAA scholarships.
In the day-to-day, the club’s training is split across a number of locations. Indoor training takes place on campus in the centre of Edinburgh, most water training is on the Union Canal in Craiglockhart, while the performance group travel to the international venue of Strathclyde Park for weekend training.
The Union Canal provides a narrow, winding 1300m stretch, shared among four clubs: a situation which provides restriction on training. Athletes begin in coxed quads around the age of 14, before moving to advanced training in doubles and singles, while the often-prioritised coxless quads are restricted to Strathclyde Park.
Like many school programmes of its size, there is little room for recruiting athletes. Instead, they are reliant on who walks through the door. But with an infrastructure to produce championships, scholarships and international vests, the club remains in a strong position and with a first-ever A final in the J15 girls’ quads at Eton Dorney last summer, the future looks bright in Edinburgh.
