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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.

Scotland, UK Description

Scotland is the most northern of the UK's four constituent countries, occupying roughly one-third of the island. In the 5th century CE, Irish Celts settled on the west coast of Britain, naming it "Scotland." Scotland's name comes from the Latin Scotia, meaning "land of the Scots." Caledonia is a term frequently used to refer to Scotland, particularly in poetry. Caledonii was the Roman name for a tribe that lived in what is now northwest Scotland.

Scotland's harsh climate and extreme weather conditions have made it difficult for many generations to live there, but they have cherished it for its natural beauty and unique culture. During the Scottish Enlightenment, philosophers like Francis Hutcheson and Adam Smith forged important contributions to political and practical theories of progress. Scottish inventors, engineers, and businessmen like Alexander Graham Bell, James Watt, Andrew Carnegie, and John McAdam helped Scotland's influence far beyond its borders.

Scotland-England relations have been strained since the two countries united in 1707 to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain. Despite heavy English influence, Scotland has long maintained its independence, clinging to historical fact and legend to preserve national identity and the Scots dialect of English.

Geographical Description of Scotland

The Aegean, Atlantic, North, and English Channels border Scotland's southern, western, and northern borders, as well as its eastern border. The west coast is dotted with large islands ranging in size from small rocks to the massive Lewis and Harris, Skye, and Mull landmasses (sea lochs or fjords). Orkney and Shetland islands are located north of Scotland. 274 miles (441 kilometers) from Cape Wrath to the Mull of Galloway, and 154 miles wide from Applecross in the western Highlands to Buchan Ness in the eastern Grampians. Scotland's mainland has two halves: north and south (248 km). With only 30 miles of land separating the Firth of Clyde and the Firth of Forth, Scotland's two major estuarine inlets on its west and east coasts, from the sea, the vast majority of places are within 40 to 50 miles (65 to 80 kilometers) of the sea.

The Highlands are in the north, the Midland Valley (Central Lowlands) is in the middle, and the Southern Uplands are in the south. (The latter two are part of the Lowlands cultural region, which includes the former two.) Low-lying areas run the length of the Midland Valley and the US east coast. The east coast's smoother outline contrasts with the west coast's rugged outline, resulting in a topographic as well as a north-south divide. The Glen Mor (Glen Albyn) fault line separates the Highlands from the rest of the country. To the north of Glen Mor is an ancient plateau eroded into a series of peaks of similar height separated by glens carved by glaciers (valleys). The Lewisian Complex rocks have been worn down by severe glaciation to form a hummocky landscape punctuated by small lochs and protruding rocks from thin, acidic soil. The magnificent Torridonian sandstone mountains have weathered into sheer cliffs, rock terraces, and pinnacles.

The Grampian Mountains are located southeast of Glen Mor, though there are intrusions such as the Cairngorm Mountains' granitic masses. The Grampians are less rocky and rugged than the Northwest Mountains, being more rounded and grassy, with larger plateau areas. The area has some of Britain's highest mountains, including Ben Nevis (4,406 feet), which has cliffs and pinnacles that make climbing difficult (1,343 metres). Rannoch Moor, a desolate expanse of bogs and granitic rocks punctuated by narrow, deep lochs such as Rannoch and Ericht, is the most striking example (Rannoch Moor is the most striking of these). The Highland Boundary Fault runs northeast-southwest from Stonehaven, just south of Aberdeen, to Helensburgh on the River Clyde, passing through Loch Lomond, Scotland's largest freshwater body. The southern boundary of the Midland Valley is divided by a fault that runs from northeast to southwest, beginning with the Lammermuir and Moorfoot hills. It's misleading to call this part of Scotland the Lowlands because, while it's low compared to other parts of Scotland, it's not flat. Volcanic hills like the Sidlaws, Ochils, Campsies, and Pentlands dominate the landscape (579 metres). The Southern Uplands are not as high as the Highlands. Glaciation has created narrow, flat valleys that divide rolling mountains into sections. The gently sloping, grassy, and rounded hills just east of Nithsdale open up into fertile Merse farming land to the south. With time, the landscape west of Nithsdale becomes more rugged, with granitic intrusions around Loch Doon, and the soil becomes more peaty and wet. Merrick's high moorlands and hills can support a sheep farm at 2,766 feet (843 metres) above sea level. The uplands slope down to the Solway Firth's coastal plains in the south and the machair and Mull of Galloway in the west.

The Economy of Scotland

As a result of the problems that plagued many European countries during the 1970s and 1980s, including the widespread failure of heavy industries, Scotland's economy suffered greatly during this period. Unemployment became a significant issue, particularly in areas where major industries were in decline at the same time. A variety of measures were implemented by successive governments to improve the situation. Because of the extraction of North Sea oil and natural gas, as well as the development of high-technology industries and other economic sectors, Scotland's economy began to prosper during the 1980s.

Scotland's economy remains small but open, accounting for approximately 5% of the total export revenue of the United Kingdom. Aside from London and the eastern regions of England, no other region in the United Kingdom has a higher gross domestic product (GDP) per capita than the West Midlands, and its unemployment rate is relatively low. To be sure, wealth distribution in Scotland is not evenly distributed, and the average unemployment rate conceals pockets of significantly higher unemployment in specific regions and localities. Scottish economic development, education, and training are all overseen by the Scottish Parliament, despite the fact that the British government has control over macroeconomic policy in the country. This includes central government spending, interest rates, and monetary policy in Scotland.