Cabin Hill was a preparatory school in Belfast, Northern Ireland, which closed in 2006. Its pupils transferred to the new preparatory department at Campbell College.
Cabin Hill was acquired as the junior school of Campbell College in 1924, and was situated in the Knock area of east Belfast, close to Stormont. The main administrative part of the school dates from 1850 and has been a listed building since 2002. It served as the residence of the first Prime Minister of Northern Ireland, James Craig, from 1920 to 1922 and also contained the Cabinet Room.
In 2001 plans to sell Cabin Hill's site to property developers were initially put on hold after protests from local residents and the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society. However, the site was sold for £4m and the prep department moved to a new purpose built facility within the grounds of Campbell.
In the early 1990s the school educated pupils (only boys) from the ages of 4-13. The vast majority of pupils went on to the senior school, Campbell College, however the school was officially a preparatory school and some school leavers attended other public schools. In its final years the school shrunk in size considerably as many pupils and teachers transferred to the new junior department of Campbell.
Following complaints made by past pupils, an inquiry was launched into alleged sexual abuse at Cabin Hill. The allegations stated that a 13 year old boarding pupil abused younger boys in the 1990s. The boy, who was a prefect at the time, was formally cautioned by the Police Service of Northern Ireland in 2002. A 2005 report into the abuse heavily criticized the school, as it was found that the headmaster at the time was aware of the abuse, but failed to take proper action. The boarding department of Cabin Hill closed in 2004.
Famous quotes containing the words cabin and/or hill:
“It was a very lonely spirit that looked out from under those shaggy brows and comprehended men without fully communicating with them, as if, in spite of all its genial efforts at comradeship, it dwelt apart, saw its visions of duty where no man looked on.... This strange child of the cabin kept company with invisible things, was born into no intimacy but that its own silently assembling and deploying thoughts.”
—Woodrow Wilson (1856–1924)
“John Anderson my jo, John,
We clamb the hill the gither;
And mony a canty day, John,
We’ve had wi’ ane anither:
Now we maun totter down, John,
And hand in hand we’ll go;
And sleep the gither at the foot,
John Anderson my Jo.”
—Robert Burns (1759–1796)