Day 93: Linlithgow to Hopetoun House, West Lothian

Virtual Walk: Scotland 2021

7th April 2021: 37.50km walked today taking the total to 8830.86/8868km. 7% of 71 entries submitting 535.69km.

In our penultimate post of our virtual walk challenge we explore Linlithgow before continuing along the Firth of Forth’s southern shore on the John Muir Way to Hopetoun House.

Route 24: Glasgow to Edinburgh

From Rosemount Park we return to Manse Road and cross the road at the Manse Basin. This basin is part of the Union Canal and was completed in 1819, 3 years before the canal was officially opened. Boat trips along the canal can be taken from here and there is a museum and tearoom in the former stables and cottages. Across the road is the doocot in Learmonth Gardens. This is the only beehive type doocot in West Lothian and dates from the 16th century.

Turning left, we go along Strawberry Bank, before turning right down steps to pass between the former Sheriffs Court and the former County Buildings. The former Sheriffs Court was built in 1863 on the site of the house from where the shot was fired that killed the Earl of Moray, the Prince Regent, on 23 January 1570. He was assassinated by James Hamilton who was a supporter of Mary, Queen of Scots. His was the first murder in Scotland using a firearm. A bronze plaque that commemorates the assassination sits on the front of the current building. The Sheriffs Court was transferred to Livingston in 2009 and the courthouse has now been converted into holiday apartments. The former County Buildings, which opened in 1940, were occupied by offices of the West Lothian Council. They have now been transformed into the Linlithgow Partnership Centre, Tam Dalyell House, which contains the library and the Linlithgow Museum.

Across the road we can see the Cross Well and fountain, carved by a one-handed stonemason called Robert Gray in 1807. Behind the Cross Well are the Burgh Halls, dating from the 1660s with the tower added in 1678. Across the road is a white-harled 17th-century building called Cross House. It has been home to at least 2 provosts of the town but is now used by St Michael’s Parish Church.

Walking up the Kirkgate, on the right-hand wall, are a series of plaques showing the line of succession of the Stewart dynasty from Mary, Queen of Scots to the present Queen. In front of us is the gateway to Linlithgow Palace which was built by James V. The panels above the archway represent the orders of Knighthood borne by James V, including the Order of the Garter and the Order of the Thistle. After going through the gate, we see on our right St Michael’s Parish Church, one of the biggest parish churches in Scotland. The church dates originally from the late 12th century but was severely damaged by fire in 1424, when it was set alight by the English and was largely reconstructed in the gothic style between 1425 and 1532. After the Battle of Dunbar in 1650, Oliver Cromwell’s troops used the church as a stable and you can see where the soldiers sharpened their swords on some of the stone pillars inside. The original stone crown was removed in 1821, as it was in danger of collapsing, and a new aluminium crown representing Christ's crown of thorns was added in 1964.

In front of us is Linlithgow Palace, the earliest surviving Scottish Royal Palace. It sits on a hill above Linlithgow Loch in parkland called the Peel. A royal manor house was built here in the 12th century but was destroyed by the same fire which badly damaged St Michael’s in 1424. In 1425, work began on the present Palace by James I and, between 1488 and 1513, James IV initiated a considerable amount of work, including the completion of the west range. James V was born in the Palace in 1512 and, as well as altering the entrance, he had the fountain in the courtyard built in 1538. Water fell from the crown into tiered bowls and out through rows of spouts shaped like beasts and human heads. It is said that when Bonnie Prince Charlie visited the castle in 1745 the fountain was made to flow with wine. In 2007, the fountain was restored by Historic Environment Scotland.

In 1542, Mary, Queen of Scots was the last monarch to be born in the Palace. With the Union of the Crowns in 1603, the building became neglected as a royal residence and, on 1 July 1633, Charles I was the last monarch to spend a night there. It was in February 1746 though that the Palace became the ruins we see today. This was caused by an army belonging to the Duke of Cumberland, who left the Palace after camping within its walls on their way to Culloden and left fires burning, which subsequently set the Palace alight.

Linlithgow Palace is another site which is popular as a film location. It was used in 'Outlaw King' (2018) and also in 'Outlander' when it was used as the location of Wentworth Prison in Season 1.

From the Palace, we walk past the Mary Queen of Scots statue down to Linlithgow Loch which was formed over 10,000 years ago from a block of ice left behind by a retreating glacier at the end of the last Ice Age. We turn left and walk around the loch clockwise. The islands in the loch are thought to be the remains of crannogs and also feature in the reason why people born in Linlithgow are called ‘Black Bitches’. Legend has it that the bitch was a black greyhound whose master was sentenced to starve to death on an island in the loch. She used to swim from the town every day with food for him. When this was discovered, she was chained to a tree on a different island to suffer the same fate. The townspeople took the animal’s loyalty and bravery as symbolic, and that is why, to this day, any true local is proud to be called a black bitch.

The walk around the loch is just under 4 kilometres and, from just about all parts of the walk, there are different views of the Palace and the Peel. At the western end, we cross Mill Burn which used to supply water to a paper mill, before continuing along the north side of the loch until we reach a road. Here we turn right and go through a gate into an area called Fiddler’s Croft. After reaching the road, we turn right and then turn right again, passing the back of St Michael’s Catholic Church. At the bottom of this path, we arrive back at the Peel.

We leave the Peel and walk past the Rose Garden and the statue of the 7th Earl of Hopetoun, who was the first Governor-General of the Australian Commonwealth. The bronze statue, which was originally situated near the Cross, is known locally as ‘the Green Man’ because of the verdigris giving it a pronounced green colour. After reaching the Kirkgate again, we walk along the High Street before turning right down St Ninian’s Road. After crossing the Mill Burn, we turn left along a path which follows the burn west before reaching Avalon Gardens, which we walk along before finding ourselves back on the John Muir Way at Mill Road.

After the road crosses the motorway, the road bends to the right and we walk straight ahead up a lane called Fishers Brae, apparently so-called because fresh fish was carried from Bo’ness to Linlithgow along this path. When we reach a road, we turn left and then turn almost immediately right on a path which takes us to Kinneil House and estate. On the way we should be able to see the Hope Monument on Airngath Hill to the east. This was built in the 19th century, in memory of Brigadier Adrian Hope, the youngest son of General John, 4th Earl of Hopetoun, who was killed in the Indian Mutiny.

Kinneil House itself is built beside the Antonine Wall and, within the grounds of the estate, we can see the remains of a Roman fortlet. The lands of Kinneil Estate were given to Walter Fitzgilbert of Hamilton by Robert the Bruce in 1323 and remained in the ownership of the Dukes of Hamilton until 1922. Kinneil House was built for James Hamilton, the second Earl of Arran, when he was Protector and Governor of Scotland from 1542 to 1554 because Mary Queen of Scots was too young to rule. It was redeveloped in the 17th century but had been abandoned by 1936, at which point it was going to be demolished. However, before it could be demolished, 16th century murals were found and so, because of this, the house was saved and is now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland.

Behind the house is the workshop, built in 1768 so that James Watt could conduct his experiments to improve the design of steam engines in secret. At the time, John Roebuck, a founder of the Carron Ironworks in Falkirk, was living in Kinneil House and was leasing local coal mines from the Duke of Hamilton. He found that the pits kept flooding and so, Roebuck asked James Watt, who had already produced a working model, to build a new steam engine which would stop the pits from flooding. Watt had required capital to construct a full-scale engine and so, with this provided by Roebuck, Watt was able to work at perfecting his steam engine. They decided that Kinneil was a good place for Watt to test out his prototypes and the nearby Gil Burn provided plenty of water. A cylinder from an early steam engine can be seen next to the workshop, but it probably came from an engine from a nearby coal pit rather than being one of Watt’s experimental ones.

Walking down the drive we pass Kinneil Museum, located in a 17th century stable building. The museum contains an exhibition telling the story of Bo’ness town as well as an interpretation centre for Kinneil Estate.

The John Muir Way then leaves the Kinneil Estate, and we walk down to Bo’ness foreshore, or to give it its full name, Borrowstounness, crossing the Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway line on the way. We follow the shore round through an area which was landscaped in the late 1970s and early 1980s from previous industrial areas to reach Bo’ness Harbour. This harbour was originally built in the 18th century but closed to commercial trade in 1959, although there are plans to develop it into a marina. Just past the harbour is the Bo’ness and Kinneil Railway, a heritage railway operated by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society.

We then follow the path for 5 kilometres along the shore until we arrive at Blackness which is the port that served Linlithgow in medieval times. Blackness Castle was built in the 15th century by Sir George Crichton and because of where it is, jutting into the Forth and because of its shape, it has been called ‘the ship that never sailed’. The castle and the Crichton lands passed to James II in 1453 and the castle has been Crown property ever since. After passing to the crown, it spent much of the next century as a royal prison and then, James V undertook a major reconstruction between 1537 and 1543, which is much as we see it today. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries it became a prison again, and then in 1870, it became the army’s central ammunition depot in Scotland, which is when the barracks and pier were built. This castle was used in ‘Outlaw King’ (2018) and doubled as Fort William in Season 1 of ‘Outlander’.

From Blackness we follow the B9109 back out of the village and head towards the House of the Binns which sits off the A904. House of the Binns translates to ‘house of the hills’ and was built in 1612 by Thomas Dalyell, an Edinburgh merchant who made his fortune at the court of James VI and I, in London and it has remained in the Dalyell family ever since. Within the house there are magnificent plaster ceilings from the 1630s, commissioned for a visit by Charles I which never actually happened.

His son, General Tam Dalyell, formed a new regiment of Scots dragoons in 1681 which, in 1877, became the Royal Scot Greys which was Scotland’s only cavalry regiment. There are many stories about the General, including that he is supposed to have played cards with the Devil. Although the Devil usually beat him, one night Tam won and in a fury the Devil threw a marble table at him, but it missed, and landed in the pond outside. Two hundred years later a marble table was actually found in the pond when it dried up.

The house was adapted around the early 19th century by the architect William Burn in the Scottish Baronial style, adding towers and mock battlements. In 1944, the house and land were put in the care of the National Trust for Scotland with the proviso that the Dalyell family retain the right to live there. From the House of the Binns we walk through the woods past the smokehouse, which is a roofless stone structure built by General Tam. On a plaque outside it reads ‘He probably came here for a quiet contemplative smoke away from the house and his womenfolk’. An early version of a man cave!!

Coming out of the woods we reach a tower which is situated on the top of Binns Hill. This folly was built in 1826 by Sir James Dalyell and was supposed to have been the result of a wager over who could come up with the most frivolous way to waste £100 - the tower being the winning suggestion, and cost only £28 to build. From the tower there are fantastic views over central Scotland and to Blackness Castle.

From here we cross fields before following tracks to reach Midhope Castle (Lallybroch or Broch Tuarach in ‘Outlander’). The first reference to Midhope Castle dates from 1478 when it belonged to the Martyne family. After ownership transferred to the Drummond family it then became the property of George Livingstone, the 3rd Earl of Linlithgow, in the mid-17th century. It is he who is responsible for how the castle looks today. In 1678 the ownership changed to the Earl of Hopetoun and it still remains in their family today. When Hopetoun House was built, Midhope Castle became accommodation for farmworkers and was inhabited until the mid-19th century. By the early 20th century, the castle had fallen into disrepair and although restoration work has taken place to the exterior, the castle is derelict inside.

From Midhope Castle, we turn left at the end of the drive to follow a path down the side of the Midhope Burn. This takes us to Nethermill Bridge which we cross before following the cycle path up to Abercorn. Abercorn was the site of a monastery which was located near to the present church which dates from the 12 century. The church has private aisles created for 3 local families: the Dalyells, the Hamiltons, and the Hopes. The Hope Mausoleum, designed by William Burn, is located adjacent to the kirkyard.

Retracing our steps, we head back down towards Nethermill Bridge but before reaching it we take a tack to the right to follow Cycle Route 76 into the Hopetoun Estate. We follow a track, through the Hopetoun deer park before we reach a road, where we turn left. At the bottom of this road, we turn left again, and soon we are able to see the magnificent Hopetoun House.

Hopetoun House describes itself as Scotland’s finest stately home and, as we approach it with the front of the house rising out of the surrounding parkland, it is easy to see why. Hopetoun House was designed by Sir William Bruce for Charles Hope, who later became the 1st Earl of Hopetoun. Work began in 1699 and the original house was completed in 1707. In 1721 William Adam was commissioned to make the house even grander and it was finally completed in 1767. Hopetoun House remains the family home of the Hopes, who retain the hereditary titles of Marquess of Linlithgow and Earl of Hopetoun. In 1974, the house and estate were placed in the ownership of the Hopetoun House Preservation Trust whose role is to manage and preserve the house, with its historic contents and surrounding landscape, for the benefit of the public. The rooms in the house are equally magnificent and have remained virtually unchanged over the 3 centuries since it was built. Even the stairs are worth seeing as they are contained in an octagonal structure surrounded by decorative panels. Walking round to the back of the house we find the West Lawn with a pond and fountain.

Hopetoun House has been used many times in ‘Outlander’. The Red Drawing Room was used as the Duke of Sandringham’s home, the West Lawn was where the duel took place between the Duke and the head of the McDonald Clan, and the courtyard was used as a Parisian Street.

Leaving Hopetoun House by walking down the drive, we continue east on the John Muir Way towards South Queensferry.