An Overgrown Old Road, Bathgate
Introduction
The photograph on this page of An Overgrown Old Road, Bathgate by Ian Dodds as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
An Overgrown Old Road, Bathgate
Image: © Ian Dodds Taken: 6 Aug 2021
This mysterious old road once went the short distance from Edinburgh Road to the other side of the railway line via a bridge, then petered out. The white house ahead sits on the far side of Edinburgh Road and the now demolished bridge is behind camera. It appears on the first OS map of the 1850s, when both sides of the railway were farmland, so presumably it was there to allow the farmer(s) to move livestock across the railway. The current bridge buttresses look more modern though, which in itself isn't that unusual. However, since the road never really appears to have gone anywhere in particular, it seems a little odd that upgrades were made. In the 1890s the road is merely shown as a bridge, joining up with nothing on either side, and in the 1940s - its possible heyday - once South of the railway it turned into a track leading to sand pits.
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Image Location
Latitude
55.895053
Longitude
-3.628971