8/9/2019 Bathgate Hills Leaflet for Web
1/3
www.almondvalley.co.uk/ secrets
This leaflet can only hint at some of the secrets of the
Bathgate Hills.For further details, and information on visiting the
area, visit:
West Lothian haschanged enormouslyover the last 330million
years.
Its been covered by volcanic ash,sunk beneath a tropical sea,
andburied deep within the earth. Icehas shaped hills and
valleys,people have built temples andcastles, and all sorts of
creatures
have made this land their home.
Evidence of these changes is allaround you... if you just
knowwhat to look for.
Take this leaflet as your guide tothe secrets of the Bathgate
Hills.Follow the trail, visit a museum ora country park, or simply
openyour eyes and wonder as youdrive, cycle, or walk through
thisspecial landscape. Open up thisleaflet and theres a game of
skill
and adventure in whichall the family candiscover thesecrets of
theBathgateHills.
Produced by Almond Valley HeritageTrust, West Lothian
Council,Lothian & Borders RIGS Group, and BritishGeological
Survey, with grant assistance fromScottish Natural Heritage &
West Lothian Council: tourism& town centres management.
)noiprocsaestn
aig(diret
pyru
elissof
A
notkriKtsaEmorf
In the last two million years, a massive thickness of ice
groundthe hills into the shapes that we see today. Traveling
eastwards,
the ice scooped out soft volcanic ash and sedimentary
rocks,leaving tougher igneous rock as isolated hills.
When the ice melted, great mounds of boulders, sand and claywere
left, and where these blocked valleys, rivers cut new routesto the
sea. Hollows flooded then gradually filled with rottingvegetation
to become bogs and swamps.
Binny Craig is a goodexample of a crag and tailhill shaped by
ice. All peaksin the Bathgate Hills followthis pattern, with
steepestslopes facing the directionof ice flow.
The rocks of the Bathgate Hillsdate from a time more than330
million years ago whenWest Lothian lay at the edgeof a giant
continent, close tothe Equator. As the coastlinechanged over
millions ofyears, there were coral seas,sandy deltas, swampy
forests,and murky lagoons.
Then came the volcanoes...Ash rained down from theskies and hot
lava welled upfrom cracks in the earth;slowly hardening to formthe
igneous rocks of theBathgate Hills.
Ice flowed in thisdirection
These hardigneous rocks resisted
erosion by ice Softer rock in the shadowof the crag was
protected
from erosion
directionof ice flow
Contour map of
amphibianfossils fromEast Kirkton
cTheTrusteesoftheNationalMuseumsofScotland
cThe
TrusteesoftheNationalMuseumsofScotland
Cockleroy
Cairnpapple
Binny Craig
Dechmont Law
the Bathgate Hills
8/9/2019 Bathgate Hills Leaflet for Web
2/3
Standing on the summit of Cairnpapple Hill 6,000 years ago,stone
age people would have gazed out on an unbroken sea offorest and
marsh. The Bathgate Hills must have been a specialplace of safety
for the prehistoric people, and archeology showsthat Cairnpapple
wasused for burials andceremonies for almost4,000 years
Most surviving cottages and farm buildings date back only a
couple of centuries years to the time of the improvements,when
landowners enclosed fields with stone walls, planted shelterbelts,
laid drains, and built roads. Limekilns were built to
producefertiliser needed for this more intensive agriculture.
Stones, ditches, humpsand hollows providetantalising clues
toearly inhabitants, butnot until the medievalperiod 800 years
ago,do we find the earliesttraces of buildings.The remains
ofchapels and fortifiedtower houses can befound at severalplaces
around thehills.
A typical cottage
Limekiln
Ca
irnpapplehengeandcairn
TorphichenPreceptory
Gravestone in Torphichen churchyard
The tough igneous rocks of thehills were quarried for
makingroads, but were not easilysquared into blocks for
building.Many local farm buildings usedsmooth sandstone blocks
aroundwindows and doors, fill ing in thewalls with rougher igneous
rock.Sandstone from Binny Quarry wasused during the 19th Century
insome of Edinburgh's finestbuildings, such as the Scott
Monument.
Beds of limestone running across the Bathgate Hills werequarried
and burnt in kilns to produce lime, used in mortar oras a
fertiliser. A vein in igneous rocks at Silvermines producedlead,
silver and other valuable minerals.
To the south and east of the hills, red bings of spent shale
recallthe shale oil industry which once produced much of
Scotland'soil . To the west, rich seams of coal, ironstone and
fireclay weremined.
Silvermines quarry
Farmhouse wal l
Lead ore on white Calcitefrom Silvermines
Ironstone Coal Oilshale
Fossils of corals, giant lobsters,amphibians and strange
fern-liketrees show that life was verydifferent 330 million years
agowhen the rocks of thehills were formed.
Today the hills provide a range ofhabitats for more familiar
wildlife.Drystone walls and beech hedgesenclose upland areas used
for grazingsheep whilst, lower down the hills,larger fields provide
pasture or animalfeed crops. Tree belts and plantationsshelter
these fields, and provide homesfor badgers and other wildlife.
To the south, Tailend Moss andEaster Inch Moss are remnants of
the bogsthat once surrounded the hills, and are nowa refuge for a
variety of wildlife.
Coniferous woodland,originally provided pit propsfor mines, but
now coverupland areas and supporttheir own wildlife community.
Human activity such asquarrying and theconstruction of
reservoirs,have provided new habitatsthat encourage a diversity
ofwildlife.
Fossil coral from Petershill
Moss, lichen and bracken
Holstein cows studya dry stane dyke
Hauling timber by horse
at Beecraigs in the 1950s
Frogs at Tailend Moss
cJamesGen
tles2004
