Bathgate Hills

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.

This gravestone is pictured a few times online, but the only thing written about it anywhere is on the always-informative UndiscoveredScotland site. Underneath a picture of it, it says 'Adam and Eve Stone', and that's it. Had I not come across the description, though, I would have assumed it was commemorating the death of a child (who might possibly have been pictured holding the hand of a sibling/twin to indicate that they would both be reunited in heaven), or worse still, the death of two children at the same time. Although to our eyes today the figures look like two girls, in earlier times there wasn't often much difference between the depiction of males and females on gravestones. If it is an Adam and Eve grave it is very crudely done as there is no tree or serpent present. Christianity's symbolism is often quite confusing; even the experts don't seem too sure if Adam and Eve are meant to represent the purity of heaven, tying in with the Garden of Eden's perfection before the forbidden fruit was eaten, or whether they are there to deliver a stern warning to people to stay on the path of righteousness. The whole Adam and Eve story doesn't make that much sense really anyway. Why was it called 'The Tree of Good and Bad', and not just 'The Tree of Bad'? They must surely have eaten good things off good trees before that serpent came along with his tempting words?

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.

View across the plaza called The Steelyard in Bathgate, with the spire of St David's church on George Street showing above the roofs of the shops on King's Street. Built in 1904, the church is now used for some commercial purpose. See also close-up shot at NS9768 : Belltower of St David's, Bathgate.

Close-up of the belltower of St David's church on George Street in Bathgate, showing above the roofs of the shops on King's Street - supplemental to my photograph at NS9768 : The Steelyard, Bathgate.

Late 19th or very early 20th C cast-iron fountain donated to Bathgate by the wife of Peter Mclagan, MP for Linlithgowshire (who died in 1900). It originally stood at the top end of George Street, at the crossroads with Hopetoun Street, but was moved to the plaza called The Steelyard at the low end of George Street, presumably because its presence at the crossroads interfered with traffic.

Looking through the gap between the gables across the valley of the Bog Burn to the Sawtooth Ramps [aka the Bathgate Pyramids].

Looking northwest across pasture.

An unclassified road leading north from Bathgate towards Cairnpapple Hill, an ancient henge and burial site.

A large area of housing on the eastern edge of Bathgate.

Looking east to Marina Road.