IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Bishops Park, LIVINGSTON, EH53 0SS

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.

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

I always find it much more enjoyable to walk upstream than down. I have decided this is all to do with the relative speed of the water - it appears to run faster than it really is when walking up the way but slower than it really is when walking down. A very muddy path follows the course of the water on this Eastern side with other occasional paths branching off up a very steep slope to Calder Wood.

Some woodland which has survived the building of Livingston.

Buttresses of a bridge over the Murieston Water, Calder Wood. The OS map still shows a bridge here. The bridge was intact in 1987 as it is shown on the previous edition of the Calder Wood orienteering map.

Some way out of the old village, but handy for the extensive new housing development that has occurred over the last 20 years.

Taken when returning from a stint doing pre race security - i.e. just making sure no one walks off with the control flags and timers. My job was done when the competitors turned up.

Not exactly sure when this bridge came down, but it must have been relatively recently. Richard Webb has a picture of the same ruined bridge uploaded here from 2007, and also mentions it is still shown as present on a 1980s map. It is also, rather strangely, still present on the initial map that appears alongside this grid-square on this site! It was around a while - it is first shown on an 1853 OS map. A track used to head South from the South Lodge of Calder House to the bridge. The track then split, but both branches don't seem to end up anywhere in particular on the old maps. South Lodge is still standing and now sits at the entrance to South Lodge Avenue, a fairly upmarket residential street in Mid Calder.

Leading down to the bridge over the Murieston Water Image The stone bridge, unfortunately, is no longer there, but replaced by an unattractive but modern and functional bridge.