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Explore!
Explore! Our articles cover anything and everything to do with West Lothian, West Edinburgh and Falkirk.
A selection of what goes into print is published here.
Browse the archives below or use the archive menu to sort by category, or use the search bar to find a specific reference.
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Dunmore: "If you like piña coladas, and getting caught in the rain.”
Well, it’s not quite piña colada, but it is a pineapple and you may well get caught in the rain. This month we visited what is described...
Editor
Aug 12, 20193 min read
Bathgate's Drinking Fountain
Why did Peter McLagan go to all the bother and expense to have a drinking fountain installed in Bathgate?
Editor
Apr 3, 20193 min read
Livingston Mill
The noise of mill machinery grinding grain, of water from the River Almond swooshing over a huge waterwheel and of the periodic...
Editor
Jan 3, 20193 min read
Newyearfield
With the new year I decided it was a good time to look into the meaning of the Livingston place name “Newyearfield.” Does it have...
Editor
Jan 2, 20192 min read
Medieval history & a mystery on your doorstep
Most people think the only medieval structure in Bathgate is the scant remains of the 14th century castle that Walter, High Steward of...
Editor
Dec 29, 20183 min read
Calders Soldiers
In 1914 the majority of the Hearts first team, then sitting at the top of the league and favourites to win the Scottish Cup, received a...
Editor
Oct 22, 20184 min read
The Ratho Poet
A time of political movement; big questions and strong feelings over Scotland and England's relationship; plus ça change. But a character...
Editor
Oct 20, 20185 min read
James Gillespie, the snuff maker of Colinton
A few Edinburgh streets (Gillespie Crescent, Place, Road and Street) and ‘James Gillespie’s High School’ bear the name of a well-off and...
Editor
Aug 1, 20184 min read
Gibson-Craig, Riccarton and Abolition: “old letter found in a box”
In 2015 the UK government finally finished paying off the massive borrowing it undertook in 1833 in order to compensate slave-owners when...
Editor
Jul 1, 20185 min read
Marvellous Merchiston
If your home was garrisoned by soldiers and under threat of bombardment, you might pick somewhere else to get married. But 22 year old...
Editor
Feb 5, 20185 min read
Dougal Haston: From Currie to Everest
Up, always up. Currie lad Dougal Haston went from rambling around the Pentland Hills to being one of the first British climbers to...
Editor
Feb 1, 20183 min read
Edwin Lucas - Scottish Surrealist
The young man from Juniper Green who painted a mural in the scouts' “den” on Belmont Road in the early 1930s - to make it look like the...
Editor
Nov 7, 20173 min read
The Balerno Loop
There is little left for the casual observer to notice today of the picturesque branch line that ran along the Water of Leith for six...
Editor
Aug 7, 20175 min read
Redhall Castle and House
Home to a diplomat involved in nation-shaping moments in Scottish history; seige and destruction by Oliver Cromwell's canons; gracious...
Editor
Jun 1, 20174 min read
King Jamie's Silver Mines
When a local collier found some unusual stones at Hilderston, near Cairnpapple in the Bathgate Hills, he couldn’t have imagined the stir...
Editor
Feb 1, 20174 min read
When Craiglockhart was "Dottyville"
How the tranquil surrounds of Craiglockhart - and a meeting at Baberton Golf Club - produced the most graphic and moving anti-war poetry...
Editor
Jan 1, 20174 min read
West Lothian Far from Ypres
Did you know that work on Beecraigs Loch was started by German prisoners-of-war during the First World War, but due to their...
Editor
Aug 6, 20163 min read
Huly Hill and the Newbridge Chariot
Have you ever sat in the traffic by the BP garage at the bottom of Cliftonhall Road in Newbridge waiting to get onto the roundabout, and...
Editor
Mar 7, 20164 min read
The Bathgate Baker's Boy who Changed the World
The face of Bathgate bairn Dr James Young Simpson is painted on the “pioneering spirit” First buses. What is not painted there is a...
Editor
Feb 8, 20167 min read
Pentland Heist
Thirty years ago, Pentland Hills Regional Park was at the centre of a police investigation when what appeared to be little more than a...
Editor
Sep 1, 20156 min read
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