Edinburgh and the Lothians - Scotland - Travel - Accommodation - Tourism

The Lothian's, consists of three former counties - East Lothian, Midlothian and West Lothian. It is generally low lying, with areas of industry - especially in the west - and areas of good arable farmland to the east. This is the heartland of Scottish history, full of castles, grand houses and churches. It is also a place of quiet, pastoral villages and marvellous scenery. The only towns that could possibly be said to be industrial are Dalkeith and Bathgate, and even here industry never intruded too much

Nominating it all is the city of Edinburgh, which probably has more history attached to it that any other comparable city in the world. But it's a compact place, and its tentacles haven't yet spread out too much into the surround-ing countryside. Behind the city are the Pentland Hills, a lonely area of high moorland streching south west towards the Lanarkshire boundary, and to the south and south east are the Moorfoot and Lammer-muir Hills respectively, which thrust down into the Borders.

East Lothian (formerly "Hadding-tonshire") is a farming county, and is a patchwork of fields, with small, neat villages dotted all over it. The quiet country lanes cry out to be explored by car, and though there is none of the grandeur of the Highlands here - indeed, the scenery has an almost rural English feel to it - it is still a beautiful area. The county rises to the south, where it meets the Lammermuir Hills, and here the landscape changes, though it never loses it gentle aspect. Haddington is the county town, and is full of old buildings. The railway bypassed the place, so it was never developed as a place of industry or as a dormitory town for Edinburgh (though the advent of the car has now changed this). The tower of the cathedralesque St Mary's Church is sometimes called the "Lamp of the Lothians". A succession of small resorts ring the coast of the Firth of Forth, though none have been commercialised to any great extent.

Mid Lothian was at one time called "Edinburghshire". Towards the south it meets the Moorfoot Hills, and has a string of small towns to the north, which sit like satellites round Edinburgh itself. Coalmining was once important here, though all vestiges of it have now gone. It is home to such places as Dalkeith and Bonnyrigg, which have never been overwhelmed by industry, and the world famous Rosslyn Chapel, which, people claim, conceals a mystery that goes to the heart of Christianity.

The county town of West Lothian used to be Linlithgow. It is an ancient burgh with a royal palace, and is the birthplace of Mary Stuart. West Lothian is more industrial in character that the other two Lothians, and at one time mined both coal and shale, which was used to produce oil. Both industries have gone, though the occasional shale spoil heap (called a "bing" hereabouts) can still be seen.

But there are still plenty of tranquil places that can be visited, such as Torphichen, with its preceptory of St John, and South Queensferry, in the shadow of the two Forth bridges. A full day could be taken up exploring Linlithgow itself, with its royal palace, medieval church, canal basin and old, stone buildings. Then there are the county's grand houses, such as Hopetoun and The Binns, which deserve to be visited and explored.

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