West Lothian Postcodes — Scotland (SCT)

West Lothian

One of Scotland's 32 council areas, West Lothian (Scottish: Wast Lowden; Scottish Gaelic: Lodainn an Iar) is also one of the country's historic counties. Avon River formed the western boundary and Almond River the eastern boundary of the county, which was called Linlithgowshire. The current council district covers a larger area than the original county. The area to the west was transferred to Falkirk, the area to the east to Edinburgh, and the area to the south was added from Midlothian as a result of local government reforms in the late 20th century.

Located on the south side of the Firth of Forth, West Lothian is primarily rural despite having been the site of extensive coal, iron, and shale oil mining operations in the 19th and 20th centuries. These generated red-spoil mounds (known as "bings" in the area) all over the council's jurisdiction. Historically, Linlithgow served as the county seat, but today Livingston is the bigger city (and the second biggest in the Lothian region after Edinburgh). In addition to the county seat of Stirling, there are several other significant urban centers in the county, including Armadale, Fauldhouse, Whitburn, West Calder, Uphall, and Broxburn, as well as the historic mining town of Bathgate, which has its roots in the Middle Ages and grew significantly during the Industrial Revolution.

Geography

Clockwise from its geographic center, the modern council area is bordered by the cities of Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders, North and South Lanarkshire, and Falkirk. Midlothian was to the south-east, Lanarkshire to the south-west, and Stirlingshire to the west of the historical county. The Briech Water, from its beginnings to the Almond, and thence the Almond to the Firth of Forth, served as its boundary with Midlothian (except by Livingston, where Midlothian intruded about a mile past the Almond to include the hamlets of Howden, Craigshill, and Pumpherston). The Drumtassie Burn and the Avon formed the western boundary. It was smaller than a modern council area, with an area of 120 square miles (310 square kilometers), making it the third-smallest of Scotland's 33 counties.

West Lothian's geology is representative of the Midland valley region in the rest of Scotland.

Carboniferous sedimentary rocks, layered from north to south, cover the majority of the bedrock surface and are overlain by various glacial deposits.

The Bathgate Hills, to the north of Bathgate and near Linlithgow, are an exception; they are made up of volcanic rocks. Other types of rocks include oil shale, sandstone, and dolerite. The oldest rocks are found in the east and south, particularly the Devonian sandstones and the volcanic rocks of the Pentland Hills. There is a large shale oil field in the county's geographic center that extends from south to north (beneath the communities of Broxburn, Livingston, and West Calder), followed by silica-rich sedimentary and basalt rocks. Near the county's western edge, beneath Whitburn, Blackridge, and Harthill, is a sizable carboniferous coalfield. West Lothian oil shale is a fine-grained sedimentary rock that is rich in organic material and contains kerogen, a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds that can be converted into liquid hydrocarbons. In the late 19th and early 20th century, this extraction was practiced on a large scale in the area using a method developed by chemist James Young.

The north is made up of lowlands, the southeast is home to the Pentland Hills, and the southwest is covered in moorland. At 562 meters, West Cairn Hill is the highest point and the CoU of the county (1,844 ft). Until recently, Cairnpapple Hill served as County Top; now, it is only recognized as Historical County Top (CoH). About two-thirds of the land is used for farming, while only about a tenth is developed. Main bodies of water include Humbie Reservoir, Lochcote Reservoir, Bangour Reservoir, Beecraigs Loch, and Linlithgow Loch, while major waterways include the Almond and the Union Canal. Inchgarvie, a small island close to the Forth Bridge, is technically part of the county.

Economy

As of the year 2020, West Lothian was home to roughly 4,500 businesses that together generated nearly 72,000 local jobs. In 2014, healthcare, construction, retail, manufacturing, and business administration and support services were reported as the top five industries for employment in the West Lothian Council area. Although mining and shale oil production were once major economic drivers in West Lothian, by 2014 they employed only 0.7% of the county's workforce. The top ten private employers in West Lothian are as follows: Sky UK, Tesco, Mitsubishi Electric, IQVIA (formerly Quintiles/Q2 Solutions), Asda, Morrisons, Johnson & Johnson, Schuh, Jabil, and Shin-Etsu Europe. West Lothian Council and NHS Scotland are two of the largest employers in the county.

The Starlaw distillery in Bathgate is one of the group's two malt whisky distilleries in Scotland. The distillery, which opened in 2010, has the capacity to produce 25 million liters annually and features 29 ageing warehouses (cellars) spread across 75 hectares at the distillery to allow for the maturation of more than 600,000 barrels. The whisky company Glenmorangie opened its headquarters and bottling plant in Livingston in 2011.

The largest shopping centers in West Lothian are located in Livingston, with options like "The Centre" (with over 1,000,000 square feet of retail space) and the Livingston Designer Outlet (the largest outlet mall in Scotland). The shopping centers in and around central Livingston make up the 10th largest indoor shopping location in the United Kingdom.

Pates Hill Wind Farm, Harburnhead Wind Farm, and Black Law Wind Farm are just a few of the large-scale wind farms in South West West Lothian that generate electricity for the surrounding area.