MenuSearch the Gazetteer
Are the results not as expected? Modify your search term or change the scope to refine your search.
Results for a place that exactly matches ...
West Lothian
West Lothian, Scotland
West Lothian is a maritime county on the south bank at the head of the Firth of Forth. West Lothian is a small county, though populous, with a coast line of only 17 miles. It is fairly low-lying, the surface rising very gradually from the Firth to the hilly district in the centre. The county lies in the industrial and urban belt of the Central Lowlands. Its county town is the royal burgh of Linlithgow, from which it takes its alternative name, Linlithgowshire.
Type: Historic County
Lat, Long: 55.942332,-3.501464
Grid Reference: NT063731
Country: Scotland
Explore West Lothian on Wikishire
The county's most famous landmark is the Forth Bridge which carries the Edinburgh–Aberdeen railway line across the Forth between South Queensferry in West Lothian to North Queensferry in Fife. The bridge, opened in 1890, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. South Queensferry got its name from the ferry service established by Queen Margaret in the 11th century, which continued until the Forth Road Bridge was opened in 1964. Hopetoun House is a magnificent country house near South Queensferry, built between 1699 and 1752. The 12th-century parish church at nearby Dalmeny is recognised as the finest Norman/Romanesque parish church still in use in Scotland.
Hopetoun House
The other main coastal town is Bo'ness, once the port of Borrowstoun (whence its full name of Borrowstounness) but it has outgrown its parent to become an industrial town. The Antonine Wall, built by the Romans in the 2nd century between the Firth of Forth and the River Clyde, had its eastern termination at Bridgeness, near Bo’ness. East of Bo'ness is Blackness, a village and harbour at Blackness Bay, an inlet of the Firth of Forth. The village is dominated by Blackness Castle (HES), situated on a promontory overlooking the bay. The castle was both a residence and a prison before passing to Crown ownership in 1453. It is much used as a filming location.
Blackness Castle
The county town, Linlithgow is a small town three miles inland, on Linlithgow Loch where there stand the remains of Linlithgow Palace, the birthplace of King James V and Mary, Queen of Scots, and probably Scotland's finest surviving late-mediæval secular building. St Michael’s Church in Linlithgow is one of the finest parish churches in Scotland.
Linlithgow Palace from Linlithgow Loch
Between Linlithgow and Bathgate are the Bathgate Hills, the county's only upland area. The county top is the south summit of Cairnpapple Hill (1,024 feet), the hill being known for its ancient burial cairns and the signs found there of ritual use over thousands of years. There are views from the summit to both coasts, on the Forth and the Firth of Clyde. Nearby is The Knock, only one foot lower! Cairnpapple Hill however is topped with a large Neolithic mound and it has been argued that its height is sufficiently unnatural to put the Knock above it as to natural height. Binny Craig, though only 734 feet, is a striking eminence similar to those of Stirling and Edinburgh.
Binny Craig
The main industrial towns of Armadale, Bathgate and Whitburn lie a little to the south, along the M8 corridor joining Edinburgh to Glasgow. An early on-shore oil industry was founded here; oil-shale mining, that has left as its legacy the "West Lothian Alps", pink-coloured oil shale bings. The largest, Greendykes Bing near Broxburn, abandoned since 1925, has steep slopes and a grass covered plateau 311 feet above the surrounding landscape. In this part of the Clyde-Forth Belt also is Livingston, once a wee village but now a fully-grown New Town.
West Lothian Alps
Pit graves and burial mounds provide evidence of extensive prehistoric settlement in the area which became West Lothian. There are remains of hillforts on Cockleroy, Cairnpapple and Binns Hills. By AD 83, southern Scotland had been conquered by Romans, who built a road from their fort at Cramond (Midlothian) to the eastern end of the Antonine Wall near Bridgeness. The Romans withdrew roughly two centuries later, and the area was left to the Britons until the arrival of Anglo-Saxons in the fifth and sixth centuries, who brought Lothian under the rule of the Kingdom of Northumbria. In later centuries the region was regularly overrun by Gaelic-speaking Scots, and it became permanently part of the Kingdom of Scotland in the 11th century. During the Middle Ages the area was the westernmost portion of the historic region of Lothian. Scotland was split into sheriffdoms, what would later become counties, in the reign of David I. The first known reference to a sheriff of Linlithgow occurs in a charter dating from the reign of his successor Malcolm IV.
Cairnpapple Hill
In pre-industrial times West Lothian was almost entirely agricultural. The Industrial Revolution spurred coal and iron ore mining and heavy industry in the south-west of the county, though by the 21st century coal mining and heavy industry had virtually disappeared and been replaced by new industries, including electronics and software manufacturing, food and beverage processing, precision engineering, and biotechnology and life science companies. The lowland areas in the north and west of the county remain agricultural. Wheat, barley, fodder crops, and potatoes are important, along with dairy farming. Sheep are raised on the higher land in the south.
Type: Historic County
Lat, Long: 55.942332,-3.501464
Grid Reference: NT063731
Country: Scotland
Explore West Lothian on WikishireThe county's most famous landmark is the Forth Bridge which carries the Edinburgh–Aberdeen railway line across the Forth between South Queensferry in West Lothian to North Queensferry in Fife. The bridge, opened in 1890, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. South Queensferry got its name from the ferry service established by Queen Margaret in the 11th century, which continued until the Forth Road Bridge was opened in 1964. Hopetoun House is a magnificent country house near South Queensferry, built between 1699 and 1752. The 12th-century parish church at nearby Dalmeny is recognised as the finest Norman/Romanesque parish church still in use in Scotland.
Hopetoun House
The other main coastal town is Bo'ness, once the port of Borrowstoun (whence its full name of Borrowstounness) but it has outgrown its parent to become an industrial town. The Antonine Wall, built by the Romans in the 2nd century between the Firth of Forth and the River Clyde, had its eastern termination at Bridgeness, near Bo’ness. East of Bo'ness is Blackness, a village and harbour at Blackness Bay, an inlet of the Firth of Forth. The village is dominated by Blackness Castle (HES), situated on a promontory overlooking the bay. The castle was both a residence and a prison before passing to Crown ownership in 1453. It is much used as a filming location.
Blackness Castle
The county town, Linlithgow is a small town three miles inland, on Linlithgow Loch where there stand the remains of Linlithgow Palace, the birthplace of King James V and Mary, Queen of Scots, and probably Scotland's finest surviving late-mediæval secular building. St Michael’s Church in Linlithgow is one of the finest parish churches in Scotland.
Linlithgow Palace from Linlithgow Loch
Between Linlithgow and Bathgate are the Bathgate Hills, the county's only upland area. The county top is the south summit of Cairnpapple Hill (1,024 feet), the hill being known for its ancient burial cairns and the signs found there of ritual use over thousands of years. There are views from the summit to both coasts, on the Forth and the Firth of Clyde. Nearby is The Knock, only one foot lower! Cairnpapple Hill however is topped with a large Neolithic mound and it has been argued that its height is sufficiently unnatural to put the Knock above it as to natural height. Binny Craig, though only 734 feet, is a striking eminence similar to those of Stirling and Edinburgh.
Binny Craig
The main industrial towns of Armadale, Bathgate and Whitburn lie a little to the south, along the M8 corridor joining Edinburgh to Glasgow. An early on-shore oil industry was founded here; oil-shale mining, that has left as its legacy the "West Lothian Alps", pink-coloured oil shale bings. The largest, Greendykes Bing near Broxburn, abandoned since 1925, has steep slopes and a grass covered plateau 311 feet above the surrounding landscape. In this part of the Clyde-Forth Belt also is Livingston, once a wee village but now a fully-grown New Town.
West Lothian Alps
Pit graves and burial mounds provide evidence of extensive prehistoric settlement in the area which became West Lothian. There are remains of hillforts on Cockleroy, Cairnpapple and Binns Hills. By AD 83, southern Scotland had been conquered by Romans, who built a road from their fort at Cramond (Midlothian) to the eastern end of the Antonine Wall near Bridgeness. The Romans withdrew roughly two centuries later, and the area was left to the Britons until the arrival of Anglo-Saxons in the fifth and sixth centuries, who brought Lothian under the rule of the Kingdom of Northumbria. In later centuries the region was regularly overrun by Gaelic-speaking Scots, and it became permanently part of the Kingdom of Scotland in the 11th century. During the Middle Ages the area was the westernmost portion of the historic region of Lothian. Scotland was split into sheriffdoms, what would later become counties, in the reign of David I. The first known reference to a sheriff of Linlithgow occurs in a charter dating from the reign of his successor Malcolm IV.
Cairnpapple Hill
In pre-industrial times West Lothian was almost entirely agricultural. The Industrial Revolution spurred coal and iron ore mining and heavy industry in the south-west of the county, though by the 21st century coal mining and heavy industry had virtually disappeared and been replaced by new industries, including electronics and software manufacturing, food and beverage processing, precision engineering, and biotechnology and life science companies. The lowland areas in the north and west of the county remain agricultural. Wheat, barley, fodder crops, and potatoes are important, along with dairy farming. Sheep are raised on the higher land in the south.