West Lothian - Where have you Binny all my life?

You can’t say this blog doesn’t take you to some exotic locations! This time we are in West Lothian! A couple of cycle rides aside, I’ve not spent much of my life exploring West Lothian despite the fact that it’s right on my doorstep. I suppose I’ve assumed that it’s just farmland and dreary towns. But my view has changed. Over the festive season I had a fabulous walk in West Lothian up a fascinating little hill called Binny Craig.

Situated a mile north of Uphall and pointing its rocky prow above the surrounding farmland, Binny Craig is only 219 metres high but a striking landscape feature. It’s a “crag and tail” landform which means it has a crag of hard rock facing west and a sloping tail of sedimentary rock running down to farmland to the east. The sedimentary rock was formed when this area was under the sea hundreds of millions of years ago. Over time, the land rose and during the last Ice Age glaciers moved in from the west, grinding away the softer sedimentary rocks to leave the harder exposed rock and creating Binny Craig as we see it today.

There was a hint of the last Ice Age that morning as my friend Graham and I cycled away from Uphall Station. The day was still and grey, gripped in cold and slick with ice in places. Our cycle route popped out on the far side of Uphall and there ahead of us was Binny Craig. It’s really quite a bizarre sight, rising suddenly from the farmland all around. 

Back roads took us to the bottom of the hill and a footpath crossed the fields before climbing sharply up through mossy winter woods. At the top of the trees we were at the bottom of the final steep section of the hill. And steep it was as we picked our way up Binny Craig’s tail to the top. The crags fell away to our west, dropping sheer to bare birch woods below. To the north, a narrow band of sunshine caught the Ochil Hills, their russet slopes the only colour on offer. And as I looked around, I started to see other little hills rise gently above low-lying mist and patches of old woodland. It was really quite nice.

So I’m sorry West Lothian that I’ve ignored you all my life but now I've found you, I'll definitely be back.

Fact File

Start/finish: Uphall Train Station

Public transport: Train from Edinburgh to Uphall

My route: Off the train turned left in the car park and picked up a cycle path at the far end signed for Uphall. On reaching the main street in Uphall turned right then left up Ecclesmachan Road. Took the next unclassified road to the left and just over 1.5km along it the footpath up Binny Craig is signed. We walked up and back down the same way but explored also a little the surrounding woods. On the way back, before Uphall we picked up a footpath signed for the village on our right and this popped out on the main street opposite the start of the cycle path back to the train station. There was also a footpath signed for Uphall just before the hill path for Binny Craig and that might provide a nicer link between the hill and the train station than the road.