Ruthin School

Ruthin School stands on the eastern edge of Ruthin, a small town in Denbighshire, North Wales. Founded after Edward I’s conquest of Wales, it is one of the oldest schools in the United Kingdom, with records dating back to 1291. The school began as a boys’ school but became co-educational in 1990. Its early years were tied to the collegiate church, and later to a limestone building erected by Dean Gabriel Goodman in 1574. Over centuries, the school educated local gentry families such as the Grosvenor and Trevor clans. The school earned a reputation for academic excellence, particularly in science and mathematics. In 2025, over half of A-level grades were A* or A, and every student applying to Cambridge received an offer. It won national mathematics competitions three years running and regularly produced gold medallists in Olympiads. The Estyn inspection in 2014 found its GCSE results well above Welsh averages. Former pupils include a Speaker of the House of Commons and a Master of the Rolls. Visitors to the site find a blend of historic and modern buildings. The 1893 schoolhouse, designed by John Douglas, still stands on the outskirts of town. Nearby, the 1923 Memorial Cricket Pavilion honours war dead, and Bishop Wynne House, opened in 1949, houses classrooms and a theatre. The 1980 wing added dormitories and music rooms for the school’s growing intake. A clock tower unveiled by Queen Elizabeth II in 1984 marks the school’s seven-hundredth anniversary.