Brucefield

Settlement in Midlothian

Scotland

Brucefield

40-44 Newpark Road, Bellsquarry These three old terraced cottages were once simply called Newpark Cottages - No 40 is on the right. Above the door of the middle cottage is a fancy placque which says &#039;ARP 1870&#039;, with the &#039;R&#039; written slightly larger and in front of the other two letters. If they are the original occupier&#039;s initials it seems strange to have accented the middle letter.
The new park used to be SouthEast of here, close to the road junction. The parkland is now Stromness Gardens, a cul-de-sac containing just two houses, both of such a size that they could probably be called mansions. — 40-44 Newpark Road, Bellsquarry Credit: Ian Dodds

Brucefield is a small village located in the county of Midlothian, Scotland. Situated approximately 11 miles southeast of the capital city of Edinburgh, it is a part of the larger civil parish of Temple. With a population of around 500 residents, Brucefield is known for its quiet and rural atmosphere.

The village is surrounded by picturesque landscapes, boasting rolling hills, lush green fields, and charming countryside views. It is predominantly a residential area, characterized by traditional stone-built houses and cottages, giving it a quaint and traditional feel.

Despite its small size, Brucefield is well-connected to nearby towns and cities. The A68 road runs nearby, providing easy access to Edinburgh and other major towns in the region. Additionally, the village has a regular bus service, allowing residents to travel conveniently within the area.

Although Brucefield lacks its own amenities, it benefits from its proximity to neighboring towns. The town of Dalkeith, located just a few miles away, offers a range of facilities, including shops, supermarkets, schools, and healthcare services. Furthermore, the nearby city of Edinburgh provides a wide array of cultural, entertainment, and employment opportunities.

For outdoor enthusiasts, Brucefield offers an abundance of natural beauty and recreational activities. The surrounding countryside is ideal for hiking, cycling, and exploring nature trails. Additionally, several golf courses can be found in the vicinity, providing opportunities for golf enthusiasts to indulge in their favorite sport.

Overall, Brucefield is a charming village that offers a tranquil and idyllic living environment, while also providing convenient access to nearby amenities and recreational opportunities.

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Brucefield Images

Images are sourced within 2km of 55.859594/-3.5352944 or Grid Reference NT0464. Thanks to Geograph Open Source API. All images are credited.

40-44 Newpark Road, Bellsquarry

These three old terraced cottages were once simply called Newpark Cottages - No 40 is on the right. Above the door of the middle cottage is a fancy placque which says 'ARP 1870', with the 'R' written slightly larger and in front of the other two letters. If they are the original occupier's initials it seems strange to have accented the middle letter. The new park used to be SouthEast of here, close to the road junction. The parkland is now Stromness Gardens, a cul-de-sac containing just two houses, both of such a size that they could probably be called mansions.

Ian Dodds

Some Comedy Art up a Tree

This was very unexpected. And due to having become conditioned to reading so much high-minded impenetrable bullsh*t alongside artworks, I have to admit it took me a little longer than it should have to realise that the accompanying write-up on the plaque below was a joke! It reads as follows: The Oozlum Bird - When startled this creature will take off and fly around in ever-decreasing circles until it manages to disappear completely, which adds to its rarity. Other sources state that the bird flies backwards so that it can admire its own beautiful tail feathers, or because while it does not know where it is going, it likes to know where it has been. David Evan Mackay, Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design 2014

Ian Dodds

Elm Tree Bench, Bellsquarry

The wood on the bench, according to the plaque, came from an old elm tree that stood at this spot for over 150 years. The pub on the opposite side of the road near here used to be called The Elm Tree Inn. Although this is still written somewhere above the door, the place has had a refit within the last few years, and now goes by the name of Stones (or Stones at The Elmtree, it's hard to know for sure). It looks like a vast improvement on what was there before - occasionally I still have flashbacks to stuffed fish staring out at me from picture frames positioned behind and alongside the bar in the 1990s!

Ian Dodds

Dog Roses

This picture was taken from the hard path that runs along the perimeter of Bellsquarry Wood on the other side of Tantallon Gardens, a residential street on the edge of Livingston - all the streets off the road it comes off are named after Scottish castles, possibly because there is a ruin called Murieston Castle a short distance away which, due to it being right next to some farm buildings, has yet to be photographed on this site. I initially assumed that the flowers must have got here due to some seeds blowing across from a nearby garden. However, due to the power of plant identification apps (LeafSnap in this case) I can report that this is probably here naturally, and is in fact Britain's most common wild rose. The leaves that belong to it are the ones formed of mostly seven, but sometimes five, leaflets (the botanical term for these kind of leaves is pinnate). The name supposedly derives from an old Greek belief that the flowers were a cure for a rabid dog bite.

Ian Dodds

A Bright Orange Trunk

There were other trunks covered in the same stuff nearby, but none quite as vivid as this. The tree was a spindly ash, and having done a bit of online investigating I am confident enough to say that this is a type of alga as opposed to a lichen (though nowhere near confident enough to put it in the title, unlike the more knowledgeable contributors on here!) When alga becomes algae I have no idea - presumably alga are tiny and this is a collection, and therefore the picture shows algae, all belonging to the same species of alga. The species I am plumping for here is Trentepohlia aurea, mostly because it is described as being orange and one of the most common algae found on trees in Britain and Ireland by various sources. This was taken from quite a grassy area a short distance from one of the many official paths through this Woodland Trust wood, which for no apparent reason aren't shown on even the largest scale online maps.

Ian Dodds

Swans and Cygnets on Pond

This pond lies at the West end of the grandly named Alba Campus on the edge of Livingston. The Alba Campus (sometimes just referred to as the Alba Business Centre) is basically an upmarket business park - with an emphasis on pharmacological research facilities - built on former farmland, which is a bit over 20 years old and has lots of still fairly impressive-looking big buildings, though some of the wooden-clad exteriors of smaller units at this end of the estate are starting to fade and show their age. From what I can gather swan eggs usually hatch around the start of June, so these four orderly cygnets are probably around a month old. Approaching the pond from the East, its size isn't immediately apparent; the channel in between the two sections gives the impression of being a just out of sight shore. There is a dead-end path leading to a small bench just East of here, but to do a civilized circuit around the pond a bit of walking through car parks and on roads is required. The pond oddly doesn't appear on older maps - up until the 1960s anyway - so it may have been created as part of the development's landscaping, in order to attract upmarket clients. Not a bad thing at all.

Ian Dodds

Old Car Park

This old car park sits immediately North of a newer car park at the NorthEast edge of the Alba Campus business park. I have no idea to what it was once attached, due to OS maps published within the last 50 years being unavailable to view online, because of copyright laws. Considering that up-to-date maps are freely available everywhere, as on this site, I propose a law change in this respect, as it is hard to fathom who it actually benefits. A road once left the start of the cross-country road from Livingston to West Calder into the old car park - the blocked-off kerbed opening is still present, and a track leads to the big derelict car park beyond, of which this is just a small section.

Ian Dodds

Stone, Limefield Recreation Park

This stone is just under four feet high, and has a cross-section measuring a foot by eight inches. There is no mention of it anywhere online, nor does it appear on any maps, anywhere, from any era. Although the light wasn't in my favour for the picture, what looks like a man-made dimpled pattern can be made out towards the bottom of the stone. The opposite side hasn't been worked, but contains a few curious deep cut-lines towards the bottom. It does look like it was designed to be ornamental, and it could of course have been moved here from somewhere else relatively recently. There are no holes indicating it has ever been used as a gatepost. Limefield Recreation Park is shown on some modern maps as encompassing both the far larger recreational ground (which includes football pitches) on the other side of Harwood Water, as well as the small grassy area to the right of this stone. As far as I'm concerned, however, it should only be the small area beyond the stone, on the way to Polbeth Bowling Club, that takes the name. Until recently there were a couple of tennis courts on the way to the bowling club, but these have now gone, providing a car park for the bowling club which is unlikely to ever reach capacity. The area of grass between the stone and the large parking area is marked on a 1960s OS map as a putting green and, whilst there is no indication of what its purpose was, the whole area of land which today contains the large lawn, car park and bowling club, is shown as being fenced or walled-off from the surrounding woodland on an 1890s OS map.

Ian Dodds

Clever Advertising!

I have never seen this before, but obviously it is unlikely to be unique. New houses go hand in hand with new furniture and it's all flat-pack these days. And if you've just spent £150k on a new house, what's £20 to avoid the possibility of kicking to bits your new coffee table when overcome by frustration at your inability to comprehend simple visual instructions that supposedly don't even need to be explained with language, and are understood worldwide by everybody except you?! This is part of a fairly new housing development that is situated close to the site of the former West Calder High School. Bizarrely, this street is called 'Five Sisters View'. The Five Sisters are a prominent landmark in the West Lothian landscape: spoil heaps left over from the very end of the shale-mining industry that was once huge round here. It may be the case that somebody will be able to get a view of them soon from an upstairs window from one of the still to be built houses on the road - there is, however, currently no view of the Five Sisters at all from anywhere on the road.

Ian Dodds

Old Bridge with New Walls

These unsightly high walls have started appearing on a lot of the bridges crossing Scotland's railways in the last few years. A number of bridges have had to be raised recently in order to accommodate the overhead power lines required for the electrification of various routes. I have yet to meet anyone that likes them; they are grey ugly functional-looking things with walls too high to see over - presumably this is to stop teenage tearaways lobbing missiles down onto the passing trains. In this case it looks as if the new walls have simply been attached to the old ones, though it seems a lot of trouble to go to for a bridge that is blocked off by metal gates (the picture was taken through the railings) from a new housing estate close to Polbeth, and leads to a private property, Blackmyre. The bridge has never really gone anywhere, other than to the other side of the railway, and will have been built to allow the farmer at what was once called 'Blackmire' continued access to his fields.

Ian Dodds

Path from Hermand Park Cemetery to Harwood Water

This hard wide path leads to a bench further down and then turns into a short footpath that crosses the unkept field on the left - which presumably belongs to the council too - to reach a gate. The gate (which can just about he made out in the distance) provides access to a short path along the bank of the burn and a second identical gate then leads to a path back to the start. The gates appeared a couple of years back and were put in by the ever-industrious local community council. It wasn't clear what exactly was inside the two cages at the top of the path. The bigger one had nothing inside it so must be protecting a manhole cover, though I can't imagine why this would be necessary. The smaller one had some kind of flat round thing inside, almost as large as the cage, again for no obvious purpose. This cemetery is one of the newer ones in West Lothian. It is interesting to note that people are quite a bit bigger than they used to be. According to the council the newer cemetery lairs/plots can accommodate a coffin 3 feet wide, whereas the older cemeteries only allow you 2 feet and 4 inches, which is quite a difference. It wasn't clear from the burial guide whether this width restriction only applied to prospective joint and therefore already occupied lairs, or to all lairs at the older cemeteries. If so it seems rather silly; could they not just start allocating wider plots?

Ian Dodds

Walled section of West Calder Burn

It isn't that obvious why it was decided that there was the need to build these two massive retaining walls. They are definitely here because, just South of the road bridge - which has been present in some shape or form for at least 200 years - there used to be a railway line serving two or more shale mines crossing the burn where the walls now sit. Old OS maps show that the railway didn't cross the water via an actual bridge however; the water disappears from the maps for a short but significant length, indicating that a culvert was built and earth piled on top to facilitate a wide crossing and to keep the track horizontal. Considering the amount of earth that must have had to be taken away to get to the culvert it seems odd that they didn't just take the final loads away from the banks to save building the wall. Or just leave the whole thing in place - a wide crossing over a culvert built for exactly the same reasons is still in place a few hundred yards upstream. The crossing was still in place in the 1960s (though it was then a track as opposed to a railway), so there are probably still people alive who did the work - I'll have to ask about...

Ian Dodds

Old milestone

This old Calder District Trust milestone is set into the wall on Limefield Road opposite Old School Avenue. There would have been a top portion which is missing. The legend painted on said Edinburgh 15/Lanark 17 according to the 1852 OS 1st Edition map. Milestone Society ID is now WL_EDWS15 (formerly WL_EDLK15 but changed to differentiate from other milestones in the area).

John Riddell

Old milestone

A view from Old School Avenue across Limefield Road (A71) showing the milestone in the wall beneath the smallest tree. Milestone Society ID is now WL_EDWS15 (formerly WL_EDLK15 but changed to differentiate from other milestones in the area).

John Riddell

Old milestone

This very weathered milestone is at Brucefield, Livingston about 100m southwest of Wilderness Traffic Island and near Brucefield Farm Pizza House. The left-hand side faces the A71. On the 1818 William Forrest map 'Linlithgow' it shows '15 Miles from Edin'. It is not on the 1852 OS map. A recess for a plate can be seen on this face.

John Riddell

Old milestone

This shows the right-hand side of the stone at Brucefield. It also shows the bulbous unnworked, uneven back of the stone which is also covered in white lichens.

John Riddell

Old milestone

This shows the position of the Calder District Trust milestone near Skivo behind the safety barrier on the top of the banking down to Murieston Water. It is leaning backwards but it is hoped that eventually it will be reset on the opposite side of the road.

John Riddell