Each edition grades its towns against each other only.
A Band D home pays £1,698 in council tax. 2,897 residents make their home in this town in East Lothian, Scotland.
Gullane’s strongest is schools: school leavers’ results beat 96% of Scottish towns. Walkability is another plus — on the way to work, 25% walk, cycle or take a bus or train. Buying in is costly (C−): homes sell for a median £424,000, about 7.9 times local household income. Natural hazards are less of a worry than in most UK towns (A).
Figures: commuting, Census 2022 · prices, HM Land Registry, the last three years · flood risk, SEPA. Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Gullane has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
The 3 things Gullane does most differently from other towns.
Each subject compared with the 2,160 UK towns with an overall grade (schools within Scotland), ordered by how far Gullane is from typical. American towns are graded separately.
Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime, so Gullane has no Safety Grade and, without it, no overall grade. Its other subjects are graded below.
How TownRatings grades towns →
Historic Environment Scotland lists 24 buildings inside Gullane’s locality, 3 of them in the top category, and 1 scheduled monument.
Explore the history →Data highlights are ordered by what stands out in Gullane.
The one school in town appears below. Its one primary school teaches 259 pupils.
| School | Level | Pupils | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Gullane Primary SchoolLargest primary schoolPrimary | Primary | 259 | – |
Scotland’s Census was taken on 20 March 2022, a year after England and Wales’s lockdown census; 43% of workers were mainly at home, and shares here are of those who travelled.
12% of commuters who live in Gullane also work there. At the census, 43% of workers worked mainly from home. Short trips to work, under 5 km: 24%, below East Lothian’s towns (27%) and Scotland’s towns (44%) alike. Unemployment benefit claims reached 1.6% of 16 to 64s in 2026.
Scotland’s Census 2022 (NRS), method of travel and distance to work · DWP claimant count · OGL
Social housing holds 14% of households. Only one of the 11 towns in East Lothian costs more to buy into than Gullane, whose median sale is £424,000. Owners make up three quarters of households. 9% rent privately, above East Lothian’s towns (8%) but below Scotland’s towns (13%).
Registers of Scotland data-zone sale prices · Scottish Government council tax · Scotland’s Census 2022 tenure · OGL · The Scottish median is our estimate from data-zone sales, brought to early-2025 prices.
The heritage lists give each building’s grade but not its age, so we don’t say which is oldest.
For its size, Gullane has 83 listed buildings per 10,000 residents, higher than both East Lothian’s towns (79) and Scotland’s towns (22). Historic Environment Scotland’s list names 24 listed buildings locally: 3 Category A, 19 Category B. This East Lothian town has one registered historic park or garden.
Historic Environment Scotland list, October 2026 · OGL
The under-15s are 15% of the population here. 7.1% of the population is aged 15 to 24, lower than both East Lothian’s towns (10%) and Scotland’s towns (12%). Gullane has a median age of 53.8 years. Degrees are held by just over half of adults.
52% women, 48% men
About 93 men for every 100 women. Across Scotland, 51% of residents are women. Women live longer than men, so towns with many older residents have more women.
| Gullane | East Lothian | Scotland | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 15 | 15% | 17% | 15% |
| 15–24 | 7.1% | 10% | 12% |
| 25–44 | 16% | 24% | 26% |
| 45–64 | 30% | 28% | 27% |
| 65+ | 33% | 21% | 19% |
| No qualifications | 11% | 15% | 17% |
| Apprenticeship | 5.7% | 8.5% | 7.5% |
| Highers or similar | 10% | 11% | 11% |
| Degree level | 51% | 33% | 32% |
Scotland’s Census 2022 · East Lothian and Scotland: all residents of their towns · OGL
Just over a fifth of residents have a disability, lower than both East Lothian’s towns (23%) and Scotland’s towns (24%).
| Census 2022 | Gullane | East Lothian | Scotland |
|---|---|---|---|
| Good or very good health | 82% | 81% | 78% |
| Bad or very bad health | 5.5% | 5.9% | 7.2% |
| Activities limited (health or disability) | 22% | 23% | 24% |
Scotland’s Census 2022, general health and disability · Public Health Scotland life expectancy by intermediate zone, 2020–24 · OGL · No age adjustment applies to these census answers, which flatter younger towns; the Health Grade’s measures, life expectancy and early deaths among them, do allow for age.
Museums, castles, gardens and days out in and near Gullane. Best known first.
Castle · Historic Environment ScotlandDirleton Castle2.5 km outside town, to the east
CastleLuffness House2.1 km outside town, to the southwest
Historic houseGosford House4.5 km outside town, to the southwest
CastleSaltcoat Castle (remains);Saltcoats Castle (Remains)400 m outside town, to the south
MuseumMyreton Motor Museum2.9 km outside town, to the south
FortThe Chesters Hill Fort4.6 km outside town, to the southeastPhotos: each place’s Wikidata image, from Wikimedia Commons under the licence below (our copy, resized).
24 listed buildings in Gullane, 3 of them in the top category.
Gullane, Main Street, Parish Church Hall: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gullane, 29 and 31, 33 and 35, 37 and 39, 32 and 34, 36 and 38, 40 and 42, Hopetoun Terrace: Photo: Victuallers · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gullane,St Andrews Kirk: Photo: Brewster d · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Gullane, Sandy Loan, Purvesholm: Photo: Mel Towler · CC BY-SA 2.0 · Geograph
3 notable people were born in Gullane.
Mathew Dawson: Liborio Prosperi, Public domain
The nearest towns and villages, from National Records of Scotland’s 2022 localities. See them on the map →
| Town | People | Miles | Overall | Cost | Safety | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gullane | 2,897 | — | — | C− | — | B− |
| North Berwick | 8,314 | 4.1 | — | C | — | B+ |
| Longniddry | 2,598 | 5.2 | — | C− | — | B |
| Haddington | 11,364 | 5.8 | — | B | — | C− |
| Cockenzie | 5,237 | 6.8 | — | B+ | — | C |
| Prestonpans | 10,623 | 8.2 | — | A− | — | D |
| Tranent | 12,235 | 8.2 | — | B+ | — | C− |
| Ormiston | 2,587 | 9.9 | — | B | — | C− |
No Scottish town has a Safety Grade or an overall grade yet: Police Scotland doesn’t publish street-level crime. People: Census 2022. Miles: centre to centre.
GCSE results beat 96% of towns in England (Department for Education, Attainment 8). One state school is inside the town; places are handled by the local council.
That is 3.4 times the typical town in England and Wales for its size. Its Category A buildings include Gullane, Duncur Road, Greywalls with Lodges, Garden Walls, Gateway and Gatepiers. It also has 1 scheduled monument.
Homes cost more than in most UK towns: the median sale over three years was £424,000, against £277,000 in the typical town in England and Wales. On cost of living it is the 294th most affordable of 296 Scottish towns.
Town in East Lothian, Scotland
Gullane is a locality of 2,897 people, in the East Lothian council area. TownRatings uses National Records of Scotland’s 2022 localities as Scotland’s towns: the physical town, as people mean the word, rather than a council area, so its figures cover the town itself. Localities split the big settlements into their towns, as ONS’s 2022 boundaries split conurbations in England and Wales.
Built from NRS geography and Census 2022
Sources: Scotland’s Census 2022 (National Records of Scotland), output areas summed to the NRS 2022 locality · Registers of Scotland house price statistics, medians and quartiles of residential sales by 2022 data zone, 2004 to 2025 (the 2023 to 2025 headline brought to early-2025 prices with each council’s medians) · Scottish Government, Council Tax by band 2026-27; Scottish Water charges 2026-27 · Scottish Government, Recorded Crime in Scotland (crimes, offences and clear-up rates by council area, 2016-17 to 2025-26); Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2020v2 crime domain and SIMD crime indicators (2014/15, 2017/18), 2011 data zones with Census 2022 residents · ONS gross disposable household income by council (2022), scaled to household income on England and Wales’s councils, with Scotland’s Census 2022 households · DWP / ONS Claimant Count via Nomis (2022 data zones, January to August 2026), over residents aged 16 to 64 at Scotland’s Census 2022; council series since 2015 · Scottish Government school contact list (31 July 2026) and school summary statistics (pupil census, September 2025); School Information Dashboard leavers’ attainment by school, 2022-23 to 2024-25 (data.gov.scot) · TownRatings grades: our own summary of the data, ranked against UK towns only. All under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Contains HM Land Registry data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026 (ONS boundaries). Northern Ireland: Source: NISRA; contains Land & Property Services data and Ordnance Survey of Northern Ireland information, © Crown copyright, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Scotland: contains National Records of Scotland data, Registers of Scotland data and SEPA data, © Crown copyright / © SEPA 2025, licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.