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Bathgate ( or italic=yes, ) List of railway station names in English, Scots and Gaelic – NewsNetScotland is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Linlithgow, Livingston, and West Calder. A number of villages fall under the umbrella of Bathgate, including Blackburn, Whitburn, Stoneyburn, Armadale, Torphichen and Fauldhouse.
Situated south of the ancient Neolithic burial site at Cairnpapple Hill, Bathgate and the surrounding area show signs of habitation since about 3500 BC and the world's oldest known reptile fossil has been found in the town. By the 12th century, Bathgate was a small settlement, with a church at Kirkton and a castle south of the present day town centre. Local mines were established in the 17th century but the town remained small in size until the coming of the industrial revolution. By the Victorian era, Bathgate grew in prominence as an industrial and mining centre, principally associated with the coal and shale oil industries. By the early 20th century, much of the mining and heavy industry around the town had ceased and the town developed manufacturing industries, principally in vehicle production and later electronics before these factories closed in the late 20th century.
Today Bathgate is the second largest town in West Lothian, after Livingston and serves as a regional commuter town within the Scottish Central Belt.
Early records of Bathgate are somewhat sketchy. It is recorded that, around 1160, Uchtred Dalrymple, Sheriff of Linlithgow, and Geoffrey de Melville came to Bathgate at the command of King Malcolm IV and measured out an area of land which was to form the basis of Bathgate Parish. The church and all its associate property were placed under the auspices of Holyrood Abbey at that time and paid a tenth of its income from the land to that institution.
In 1315, the daughter of King Robert I of Scotland (Robert The Bruce), Marjorie Bruce (alternatively spelt Margery) Bruce, married Walter Stewart (or Steward) (1293–1326), the 6th Lord High Steward of Scotland. The dowry to her husband included the lands and castle of Bathgate. Walter died at the castle on 9 April 1326. This marriage is still celebrated in an annual pageant forming part of the Bathgate Procession & John Newland Festival, colloquially known as the Bathgate Procession.
In the 1846 book A Topographical Dictionary of Scotland, Samuel Lewis writes:
Another antiquarian, W. Jardin, in the Statistical Account of Scotland Vol I (1793), and referring to Walter Stewart, states:
Dating from around the same time the remains of Bathgate's former parish church still stand at Kirkton. The original 12th-century construction was absorbed by a later build in 1739 when a new church was erected on the same site. The walls of the church were consolidated in 1846.Buildings of Scotland; Lothian, by Colin McWilliam This simple whitewashed edifice served the community until its last service on 9 April 1882. King Malcolm IV makes reference to the original church in a charter, granting it to the monks of Holyrood Abbey. Records show that Holyrood Abbey gave the church to the abbot and monks of Newbattle Abbey in 1327.
Bathgate remained a very small rural community until the middle of the 19th century with only a foray by in the 17th century to unrest the populace. Francis Groome, in the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882–84) writes:
Robert Louis Stevenson, in the book Lay Morals, Part 2: The Pentland Rising. A Page of History further elucidates upon this night in November 1666:
His depiction goes on to describe how the half the army perished in the freezing weather as they headed towards the Pentland Hills.
In 1831 Bathgate Academy was built. Designed by the Edinburgh architects R & R Dickson this is Bathgate's only large public building of historic merit. It was endowed by a Jamaican plantation owner John Newlands. The building later became part of Balbardie Primary School, and later still was changed into private housing.
By the opening of Edinburgh and Bathgate Railway in 1849, local mines and quarries were extracting coal, lime, and ironstone.
James Young's discovery of cannel coal in the Boghead area of Bathgate, and the subsequent opening of the Bathgate Chemical Works in 1852, the world's first commercial oil-works, manufacturing Kerosene oil and paraffin wax, signalled an end to the rural community of previous centuries. When the cannel coal resources dwindled around 1866, Young started distilling paraffin from much more readily available oil shale.Groome, Frances, Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland (1882–84) The landscape of the Lothians is still dotted with the orange spoil heaps (called bings) from this era. Collieries and quarries and the associated industries (brickworks, steelworks) were the main employers in Bathgate as the 19th century drew to a close.
Between 1882 and 1884, Bathgate High Parish Church was constructed on Jarvey St. Designed by Wardrop and Reid, the church was built of sandstone in Romanesque architectural style. It is Category B listed.
In the mid-20th century, many local industries in the town had closed and West Lothian was designated a Special Development Area. In such areas, extra financial inducements were offered by the British government to assist companies wishing to relocate. As a result, in 1961, the BMC—which consisted of the merged Austin Motor Company and Morris Motors—located a new truck plant in Bathgate rather than expanding their Longbridge plant as originally planned. The plant closed in 1986 under ownership of British Leyland.
On 24 March 1986, the Bathgate-Edinburgh railway line was re-opened to passengers for the first time since the 1950s. This railway line was extended as the Airdrie-Bathgate Rail Link to Airdrie allowing train services to run between Glasgow Queen Street and Edinburgh Waverley via on time and on budget in December 2010.
The world's oldest known reptile fossil, Westlothiana (affectionately referred to as Lizzie), was discovered in East Kirkton Quarry, Bathgate in 1987; it is now in the Museum of Scotland.Knell, Simon J, Museums and the Future of Collecting (Second Edition), (P170),
Early in 1992, News Article the US company Motorola opened a mobile phone manufacturing (Personal Communications Sector or PCS) plant at Easter Inch in Bathgate (now the Pyramids Business Park). In 2001, the global market for mobile phones dropped sharply and as a consequence, despite pressure from the highest levels of UK government, on 24 April 2001 Motorola announced the closure of the plant and the loss of 3,106 jobs. The site was occupied by HMRC. In 2021 and early 2022, the Pyramids operated as the principal COVID-19 vaccine centre in West Lothian. In December 2021, it was announced that the Pyramids Business Park would become the site of a new large film and TV studio. Some previous productions at the site have included the film T2 Trainspotting and the TV show Good Omens, which stars local actor David Tennant.
| Sources: Online Historical Population Reports, A Vision Of Britain Through Time, General Register Office for Scotland and http://www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk/ |
Bathgate is home to a number of national and international retailers. In the late 19th century the co-operative halls were built and served the community until closure in the 1980s. It provided a bakery, butchery, funeral parlour, grocery store, clothing, furniture and a dance hall. Even after the closure the co-operative dance hall was used as the Room at the Top until it caught fire in 1997.
The local cinema, Bathgate Cinema, located on the site of the old St Davids Church closed in April 2024.
In 1998 the artist Lumir Soukup built the earth sculpture The Bathgate Face at Wester Inch. By taking facial measurements of more than 1200 Bathgate residents, the artist was able to create an 'average profile' which was the basis for the sculpture. Development in the area in 2004 threatened to demolish the sculpture but the artist managed to persuade developers to build around his work.
Bus Services in Bathgate are co-ordinated by West Lothian Council and are provided principally by Lothian Country Buses, SD Travel and E&M Horsburgh. Frequent and daily direct services exist to Falkirk, Westfield, Armadale, Blackridge, Whitburn, Fauldhouse, Torphichen, Linlithgow, Broxburn, Uphall, Newbridge, Deans, Livingston, East Calder and Edinburgh.
Lothian Country operates the main bus services through Bathgate as listed below:
Railway Station is operated by Scotrail and is served by eastbound services to Edinburgh Waverley and westbound services to Helensburgh Central via Glasgow, and Milngavie via Glasgow. Edinburgh Airport is away.
Bathgate FC were active between 1893 and 1938 and played at Mill Park.
In the performing arts, notable persons include David Tennant (born in Bathgate but raised in Paisley), Lewis Capaldi (singer-songwriter), Isla Fisher (actress lived here from a young age until six years old in 1982), Fern Brady – comedian and writer Goodbye Mr Mackenzie is an indie rock band formed in Bathgate.
In sports, Bathgate professional golfers have included Eric Brown, Bernard Gallacher and Stephen Gallacher (nephew of Bernard). Other sportspersons include Richard Brittain (footballer), David Robertson (footballer), Elliot Bunney (international athlete), Dario Franchitti (IndyCar Series racing driver) and Marino Franchitti (sports car racing driver; younger brother of Dario).
and as part of West Lothian with:
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