Woodend – The Lost Village near Armadale
If you have a look at West Lothian’s colourful history, you will see that the area has over Twenty ‘Lost Villages’. These were originally miners settlements constructed by the Nineteenth Century Mining and Oil companies to house their fast growing workforce during the ‘Black Gold’ rush of the Nineteenth Centuries Industrial Revolution. Amongst these lost […]
Mossend
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 […]
Bathgate – Boggy settlement to Bustling Market town
Bathgate is an Old Market town that lies on the central belt corridor of Scotland in the heart of West Lothian where the Black meets the Red. It has been the Birthplace and home to many famous people over almost a millennium, Including the Royal Stewart Dynasty. The Town of Bathgate was at One time […]
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 […]