Ballencrieff Toll

This old lamp has stood here for the last 30 years or so, save for a brief period a couple of years back when it was taken away to get tarted up a bit, and modified so it could once again be hooked up to the electricity. In days gone by it used to move about more regularly. The Provost of Bathgate used to have the honour of having the lamp positioned directly in front of his house, and it moved from place to place over time accordingly. A provost is loosely the equivalent of a mayor in England, though the title seems to have become more ceremonial as time has gone on. Bathgate was a Burgh Council - this meant it had a certain amount of autonomy in running its own affairs - until everything to do with local administration was shook up in Scotland in the mid 1970s. All its powers were then subsumed into West Lothian Council, which itself still has a provost, along with about two-thirds of Scotland's other local council areas. The coat of arms adorning the lamp is fanciful in the extreme. There is no disputing that Bathgate once had a castle, but it is generally thought to have been uninhabited since the early 1300s, and a report of the late 1700s states that there wasn't a stone of it left at the time. Then, as now, it was a small unimpressive mound; it is currently located in the middle of Bathgate Golf Course. The flag in between the two Saltires is supposedly that of a family who lived in the castle several hundreds of years ago. The water seems to arise from artistic license, as the moat was tiny, and there are - and were - only smallish ponds in the area, but these are quite a distance away. The uninspiring and meaningless Latin motto translates as : 'The common good between the walls'. While it is perfectly fine in my book to retain the lamp in its original state, I would hope that, should there ever be a need for coats of arms here in the future, this lazy heraldry gets replaced. Quicksmart!

This gate is one of two leading into the Petershill Wildlife Reserve just North of Bathgate. The writing on the top of the gate says: AGGRESSIVE OLD MAN IN(?) BLUE BERGHAUS JACKET & BLONDE LABRADOR BITING PEOPLE AND CHASING WILDLIFE REPORTED TO POLICE 17/04/22 12PM Apart from never having seen anything like this on a metal gate before, two things struck me - (1) The writer used all the space available but never looked like running out of gate, and (2) To own an aggressive labrador you must surely be some kind of psychopath - luckily he was unarmed!

Petershill Wildlife Reserve occupies most of the site of a former limestone quarry. The bit on the left of the very steep road leading North from Bathgate has two gates and is mostly situated where two former reservoirs had been created from the quarry ponds. The bit on the right of the road caught my attention because of the steep drops down from the stone wall that runs alongside the road, and the lack of any obvious water down below. There is a stone wall surrounding this sunken area - broken in a few places, with the usual agricultural makeshift defences in place to avoid the rescuing of livestock. I discovered upon my return that this bit was once part of the quarry too . The stone face pictured isn't actually a part of the perimeter wall as I, disoriented as usual, had initially thought, but is further South. Old maps, at the time of the reservoirs simply denote it as pond (with an area of 0.24 acres). Presumably this was drained at the same time the reservoirs were - in the 1980s. I am always intrigued as to how they manage to drain places that have turned into ponds and lakes, considering that the bodies of water have formed due to the ground having been excavated to the bedrock. Anyway, all that remains of the pond today is a big muddy puddle. And this is actually a part of the Scottish Wildlife Trust managed reserve, they just don't tell anybody.

Depending on which large-scale online map you go to, this part of the oddly named 'Park of Peace' at the NorthWest edge of Bathgate (more research is required here, but I think the name has something to do with the fact that there are some war memorials within the park) is either broadly described as a play area, or specifically described as a 'cycle racing facility'. It is obviously designed with fun in mind as, despite the bumps and berms, it is downhill all the way. However, the starting point and finishing point must only be 50 feet apart. So why not join them up, thereby facilitating (pun intended) proper races over several laps. As every true fan of cycling knows, it is the uphill struggles that are the most exciting. There is a vague grassy route between the two ends but it is obviously not designed to be ridden up. I passed by on the first proper T-Shirt day of spring. Therefore all the targeted users were just drinking and socializing. Good on 'em - I have to admit I felt twinge of jealousy!

This is one of two. There is one behind camera exactly the same size which has '20 P' above it. They were painted in the 1990s to mark the former entrances to air raid shelters that were dug out of the banking behind the wall. There is a plaque nearby which says that it is all connected to 50th anniversary VE Day goings-on, and the writing above the imaginary lintels denotes how many people each air raid shelter could accommodate. The plaque also mentions that Challenge Anneka, a popular TV programme back then, filmed here at the time and that the challenge had something to do with relocating a war memorial. Whether the presenter, Anneka Rice, ever did a piece about the air raid shelters, or was filmed in front of them, is not mentioned. Considering that Bathgate has (and also had during the war) a population of several thousand I should hope that there were a few more dotted about and that these two were highlighted due to their central location, on Bathgate's main road. Thankfully they were never really needed. The plaque states that only one bomb fell on Bathgate in World War Two and didn't explode. For those that know the area it fell on the West side of Whitburn Road, on the ground now occupied by the big surgery just up from Morrisons supermarket.

The view is probably SW from the Edinburgh Road, with the Loco Shed and the earlier Bathgate Upper station off to the left. All is so utterly different now, with the original station, on the ex-NBR Glasgow - Airdrie - Bathgate - Edinburgh line closed with the whole route east of Drumgelloch (formerly Clarkston) and Airdrie from 9/1/56. Thirty years later, a new Bathgate station was built nearer the town and opened, along with the restoration of a passenger service to Edinburgh, on 24/3/86. More recently, on 18/10/10, yet another replacement Bathgate station was opened, ready for the complete restoration, now electrified, of the whole route through to Airdrie and Glasgow (North Clyde Lines). At least three ex-NBR Class J36 0-6-0s (Nos. 65265/77 and 65341) feature. [I apologise for the poor quality of this photograph and I also admit to being a little uncertain of its precise location]. [?].

The quarry is famous for the discovery of important fossils by professional fossil collector Stan Wood, including 'Westlothiana lizziae', known as 'Lizzie' a possible link between amphibians and reptiles in 1988. Geologists from National Museums Scotland spend two field seasons in the late 1980s excavating a complete vertical section of the quarry, literally layer by layer, collecting fossils and taking rock samples as they went. Here a geologist from Glasgow Museums, who was assisting with the work, examines pieces of limestone in the spoilheaps near the entrance to the quarry.

A working limestone quarry in the 18th century, it became a reservoir in the 19th century. This was drained in 1986, just a couple of years before this photograph was taken. The site is now owned and managed as a nature reserve by the Scottish Wildlife Trust.

A magnificent sandstone Greek revival school (now flats) built in 1831 and A-listed (LB22125: Link ). It was paid for by John Newland, who made his fortune from the slave trade in Jamaica.

Born in Bathgate, Simpson (Link ) was a Scottish obstetrician who pioneered the use of chloroform as an anesthetic and was active in the Free Church. Behind is the former Marjoribanks Street Congregational (now United Reformed) Church; see its C-listing for details (LB50608: Link ).

Rival pawnbrokers in the pedestrianised Bathgate town centre.

Rail passenger services to the busy town of Bathgate were withdrawn as early as 1956 but in 2010 the present station was opened when the line to Airdrie was reinstated and electrified: Link .

The A89 (Link ) is the non-motorway route from Glasgow to Edinburgh.

On Monkland Road, towards the western edge of Bathgate.

With roadside beeches; looking across to Limefield.