IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Maryfield Park, LIVINGSTON, EH53 0SD

Some woodland which has survived the building of Livingston.

Now a quiet unclassified road through modern housing, this was once the A71 main road from Edinburgh westwards to Kilmarnock.

Part of a westward expansion of Midcalder towards Livingston that has occurred over the last 20 years.

One of the residential areas on the outskirts of Livingston.

Seen on final approach to Edinburgh from the west.

This path is strangely unmarked on all maps, as are a few other paths in this narrow stretch of woodland. Lizzie Brice (actually Bryce when she was alive) must have been something of a local character - she died in 1865, aged 89, but by 1895 these trees had already been named after her. Contrary to popular belief she was not a witch and in fact spent most of her life married, and had a number of children. Somewhat sketchy historical surmising leads those that have looked into it in more detail to state that she was probably a tall no-nonsense woman, who lost it a bit in her later years. The fact that it is known she took in female orphans from poor-houses when a widow in her 80s must only have added to her formidable reputation, as these girls must no doubt have had a few good first-hand stories to tell! She and her husband used to have a few cattle which they would let roam the wood that now takes her name. She lived and died in Raw Cottage, which no longer exists, but can be seen on old OS maps (it is easiest to figure things out by overlaying maps on the great NLS website). It was situated just North of the gates at the entrance to the big electricity distribution station, which put it at the corner of a T-junction of what would have been two fairly major roads in their time. The Northern section of the wood is called Raw Strip, and both are maintained by community volunteers.

Taken by holding camera (very tightly!) inside the railings. I am often frustrated by the lack of readily available information about our utilities infrastructure. No doubt this is on the basis that it would facilitate some kind of terrorism. However, due to the fact that these sites, and the overhead powerlines that supply them, are hardly subtle, I don't really have much truck with this argument. There is an overhead powerline that stops about half a mile East of here on the outskirts of Mid Calder. Presumably the cables then go underground into here. From what I can gather, these electricity stations lower the voltage carried by the overhead lines, then feed into the smaller electricity substations found fenced or bricked off in housing estates and business premises, which then lower the voltage again. The outbound voltage from this one is 33kV, which is on the high side for a distribution station according to Wikipedia. I only know this as there was a one of those statutory notices affixed to the entrance gates stating that modifications to the site would be taking place. And possibly already have, as the notice was from a year or two back. Rather like election advertising boards and birthday banners, nobody who puts these notices up seems responsible for taking them down!

At this point a path leaves the route above the left bank of Murieston Water and descends to a footbridge giving access to Calderwood.

Spottiswoode Gardens consists of a main drive and several spurs, all of them culs-de-sac. The path along the bank above the Murieston Water passes along to the south, and this is looking north from that path.