West Calder


West Lothian

West Calder
©2022 Gazetteer for Scotland

West Calder

Located 16 miles (26 km) southwest of Edinburgh, in the old county of Midlothian, the village of West Calder was an important centre for the oil-shale economy in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Most housing dates from the mid-20th century though it has an earlier public library built in 1903. Funded by Carnegie money this building represents a fine example of the Art Nouveau style and has a decorative interior. The parish church (1643) was abandoned in 1880 and is now roofless. A memorial in the centre of the village remembers the fifteen men killed on the 10th January 1947 as a the result of an explosion at the Burngrange Oil-Shale mine which lay to the southwest of the village.

A half-mile (1 km) to the east stands Hermand House, an 18th-century mansion damaged by fire in 1970 but repaired to form flats.


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