Belhaven Brewery

Belhaven Brewery stands in the village of Belhaven, East Lothian, a few hundred metres from the North Sea coast. The brewery complex is a Category A listed site and dates back at least to 1719, making it Scotland’s oldest surviving independent brewery. Its history reaches further, to the 1200s, when Benedictine monks on the Isle of May established a site for malting and brewing. The manager’s house, built around 1790, sits west of the approach lane and is now privately owned. Its grounds include a small folly and the entrance once featured whale jaw-bones, now reduced to stumps. The brewery became Scotland’s largest independent brewery by 2005, when Greene King of Suffolk paid £187 million to take it over. In 2019, Hong Kong’s CK Assets acquired Greene King, keeping the brewery and its brands intact. Belhaven’s range includes around twenty beers, from widely sold Belhaven Best to craft styles like Twisted Thistle IPA and Scottish Oat Stout. A new brewhouse installed in 2012 broadened the styles it could produce, including lagers, and was officially opened by Princess Anne in 2013. Visitors find a working brewery complex with modern brewhouse equipment alongside older structures. The manager’s house and its grounds, including the folly and former whale-bone gates, add to the site’s character. Nearby, the brewery’s managed pubs number over 150 across Scotland. The brewery also sponsors Scottish music through the Belhaven Bursary, awarding £25,000 annually to innovators like Elephant Sessions and Talisk.