The Highland and Lowland Clearances – Which Impacted more
So, most of us are well aware of the Highland Clearances. A dispersing of the Scottish Highland Clans with the eviction and evacuation of hundreds of the Glens that were their homes. These 19th century clearances left the highlands a vast unpopulated land mass. However, It’s far less often, if ever, that we her about […]
Oakbank – West Lothian’s Prosperous Company Village
You know sometimes, when youre walking through a park or nature reserve, you feeling like youre walking through history? well, today we’re going to be discovering a place just like that. The Vanished village of Oakbank in West Lothian is a story about a lost community. yet its hidden right there in plain sight. If […]
Gavieside – The Village That Vanished without a Trace
Gavieside is One of West Lothians Lost Villages near Polbeth. It was built in 1863 to house the workers of the shale mine of the same name. The village was abandoned in 1939 after the sudden decline of Shale mining due to foreign production taking over. Gavieside – The Village That Vanished Without a Trace […]
Pumpherston – The Blueprint of a Boom Town
When we think of the First of the global oil industries, we often think of the sprawling deserts of the Middle East or the dusty plains of Texas. But, for a brief window in the Nineteenth century, the worlds ‘refined oil’ capital was actually located in the cold, windswept lowlands of Scotland. This dominance relied […]
Westfield – From Bustling Industrial Town to a Tiny Village
On the far North West corner of west Lothian, you will find the village of Westfield. A tiny unassuming looking settlement. Westfield looks like the sort of place where nothing exiting has ever happened. Like somewhere that has always just been a tiny little dot on the map. But looks can be deceiving. Although the […]
Seafield
On the Western edges of Red West Lothian, just before it meets the Black, up on the ridge that overlooks the Almond valley, sits the little village of Seafield. Seafield This was a village that was initially built as One of West Lothians many ‘Company Villages’ of Miners Rows. These were usually One or Two […]
The Lost Village of East Benhar
Polkemmet Moor has always been a place that has been dear to me ever since I was a Child back in the 1980s. It’s a place where, despite the dire warnings about the dangers by the adults, I was always fascinated with the place and loved to explore it. This was due to the areas […]