IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Dunnet Way, BROXBURN, EH52 5BU

And, in the background, one of the few remaining oil-shale bings, the remains of the original Scottish oil industry, dating from the second half of the 19C.

Loxam offers cherrypickers for hire. Business must be good, because there are rather fewer waiting for a job than in Image], taken almost exactly four years earlier.

Access equipment in waiting at the East Mains Industrial Estate.

The square is nearly all industrial estate. Looking around it, it soon becomes obvious how much economic activity revolves around keeping the nations car fleet on the road.

Fly agaric mushrooms growing from under a dead birch trunk. Taken in the West wood which lies near to East Mains industrial estate.

With East Mains industrial estate in the foreground and Greendykes Bing and the River Forth in the background. The circular enclosure at West Farm http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/74469/details/west+farm/ can be seen to the left of the main Glasgow/Edinburgh railway line on the right side of the photo.

The Albyn, Greendykes and Faucheldean shale bings with the outskirts of Broxburn in the foreground and the Firth of Forth and the Ochil Hills of Fife in the distance. They're a reminder of the world's first large-scale oil industry which came to dominate the area in the 19th century, thanks to the pioneering oil extraction techniques of Glasgow-born chemist James Young, aka "Paraffin Young". Some of the bings have gradually disappeared over the past two decades as the shale has been quarried mainly for road surfacing. It was also used in the past for blaes tennis courts which have been fast disappearing in favour of all-weather surfaces. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Young_(Scottish_chemist) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shale_oil

A reminder of West Lothian's industrial heritage offering recreational possibilities, or an eyesore blighting the landscape? In 2005 West Lothian Council commissioned Barbra Harvie to investigate the issues, resulting in the following detailed and fascinating report. http://www.westlothian.gov.uk/media/downloaddoc/1799514/1842967/oil_shale_bings

Only from the air can you really appreciate the scale of the 1Km long bing. Viewed from a flight to Amsterdam, which was one of only two departures from Edinburgh that day due to the coronavirus (covid-19) pandemic restrictions.

This is a vast industrial and business park on the eastern outskirts of Broxburn. In the background is the Greendykes Bing, a reminder of a bygone industrial age.