Kirkton Campus

A business park occupying both banks of the Killandean Burn, a mile (1.5 km) west of Almondvale in Livingston Kirkton Campus was designated as an area for research activity as early as 1963. The Livingston Development Corporation (LDC) hoped to attract Heriot-Watt University to move from the centre of Edinburgh, but instead the university chose the Riccarton Estate on the edge of the capital. The LDC also unsuccessfully tried to persuade the World Health Organisation to set up here. Instead Kirkton was developed as Scotland's first science and technology park in the 1970s and it became the core of the so-called 'Silicon Glen'. The first company to come was Ethicon, which manufactured surgical sutures here from 1975 until its closure in 2017. W.L. Gore has produced high-tech fabrics in a factory here since 1984. Computer hardware manufacturers also operated plants here, including Seagate (closed 1999) and NEC (closed 2005).

The streets are named after notable Scottish scientists; namely Bain, Baird, Gregory, Fleming, Macintosh, MacMillan (Macmillan), Meikle, Michaelson and Simpson.


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