Lochcote is located within the Bathgate Hills is approx. 1.25 miles North East from Torphichen. Lochcote can also be seen from the summit of Witchcraig and Cockleroy.
Lochcote is now an old reservoir at one time was operated by Scottish Water to supply Boness 5 miles to the North.
THE HIDDEN LOCH
LOCHCOTE CASTLE AND LOCHCOTE HOUSE
Lochcote had a medieval castle in the17th Century which was replaced by Lochcote House which is shown on a 1856 map of Linlithgowshire and the angle tower from the castle was kept as Dovecot.
Lochcote House was itself demolished, but the remains of the castle angle tower are what is left today.
THE STORY OF TWO LOCHS
The two other natural lochs in West Lothian which have been lost are Lochcote in the Bathgate Hills just north of Torphichen, and Balbardie Loch at Bathgate.
Lochcote loch lay to the north of the present reservoir. In the 18th century the loch supplied pikes, perches and eels for Lochcote mansion house nearby. It extended to 22 Scotch acres in size – about 30 acres today).
The depth of the water was only about five feet, and apart from fishing, Peter Wishart, the owner in the early 19th century, considered it ‘a useless appendage to a property of a few hundred acres’. So by having ten deep drains dug across, and enlarging the tunnel by which the water left the loch at the northeast corner, he drained Lochcote in April 1820 – ‘a pretty nice operation in draining’ – and planted it with pasture and crops.
An old man who could remember the loch in the early 19th century, said that it had a ‘central island, and the big logs taken from it and burned’. This suggests that the island was a crannog – a defensive, man-made island built on wooden piles in the loch. According to the Canmore database at the RCAHMS, ‘Horns were also found in the loch, but have since been lost. Part of a quern was found by Prof. Duns on an examination of the site.’ However, the exact location of the crannog has not been established.
One other interesting thing about Lochcote: The 17th century geographer and physician, Sir Robert Sibbald, lived at Kipps, just a few hundred yards from Lochcote. In his Note and Letter Book, he describes a ‘subterraneous channel fra Lochcoate… Some loughs, as particularly Loughcoat lough, passe under Rocks and emerge at some distance thereof: about the fourth part of a Myle, and makes a Milne dam, as this in my time did. Where the water runs in below the rock, you will heare a noise, like that of a water under a bridge’. He’s probably referring here to the outlet at the northwest corner that Wishart used to drain the loch. I wonder if this subterranean tunnel still survives?
You can easily find the site of the old loch – it’s a piece of flat and boggy land north of the present reservoir.
REMINISCENCES OF LOCHCOTE TORPHICHEN
Shared from West Lothian History and Amenity Society
In 2006, I interviewed an elderly gentleman in Bathgate, Mr John Eadie, then in his seventies but still amazingly active physically and mentally. He provided these memories of life at Lochcote mansion house in the 1940s. Lochcote was a fine estate with a mansion house and natural freshwater loch, lying about half a mile north of the village of Torphichen. The loch has been drained, and a reservoir was built to the south of the mansion to supply water to the Burgh of Bo’ness.
The owners
Owned in the 1940s by Mr Alexander G. Ramage, the estate of Lochcote extended to 400 acres. A.G. Ramage was of the Leith shipbuilding firm, Ramage and Ferguson, [a firm that was active from 1877 to 1934, and specialised in building luxurious steam yachts for the rich and famous – see Wikipedia for more information on Ramage and Ferguson]. His wife was a Miss Herdman of the Haymarket flour mills, at Devon Place, Edinburgh. [Alexander Gulliland Ramage married Elizabeth Alison Herdman in Corstorphine in 1893.]
Mr Ramage was retired by 1941, and did not take much part in local community life, though he at least once appeared at a political meeting in support of the Conservative candidate, Sir Adrian Baillie.
‘Downstairs’ staff
Mr Eadie started work at Lochcote in 1941 as apprentice gardener. The estate staff at that time consisted of :
Charles Broadfoot, gardener
George Lothian, chauffeur (lived at the stables)
Nancy Manson, cook
Grace Broadfoot, tablemaid (sister of Charlie the gardener)
Jean Murray, housemaid
? ? , kitchenmaid
On Christmas day, each servant went in separately to see the Ramages. Mr Eadie was given half a crown, and the chauffeur and gardener were each given five shillings.
Jean Murray and Grace Broadfoot both joined the WAAFs during the war, so Nancy Manson’s sister came to help in the Big House. Nancy Manson and her parents and sister lived in the lodge-house on the Linlithgow road. In another estate house nearby lived Mr & Mrs Alves and their daughter Cis. Mr Alves was the waterman for Lochcote reservoir – water supply for Bo’ness, owned by Bo’ness town council.
If the water level in Lochcote ran low, water was drawn from the subsidiary reservoir at Bowden (now a fishery). Mr Alves was succeeded by a man named Stewart, then by Bill Fleming.
IRON AGE CRANNOG
In a natural loch to the north of the present reservoir an Iron Age crannog was discovered in the 19th century. No trace above ground of the large 16th-century château depicted by Timothy Pont: nearby fragment consists of a small vaulted chamber, probably a relic of the mansion described in 1807 as showing baronial gloom and splendour.
Taken from “West Lothian: An Illustrated Architectural Guide”, by Stuart Eydmann, Richard Jaques and Charles McKean, 2008. Published by the Rutland Press http://www.rias.org.uk
WILLIAM FORBES & HIDDEN GRAVES
Hidden in the undergrowth at lochcote is a marble coffin and some graves.
The main grave is for William Forbes of Castleton and his son Willian Forbes Forbes .
Bowdenhill Limestone Company was owned by Mr Forbes of Lochcote.
Sacred to the memory of
William Forbes
Born July 1799, Died August 1872
Thy will be done
William Forbes Forbes
Of Castleton and Lochcote
Born August 1850 Died April 1883
And there shall be one sold and one shepherd
LIME KILNS – BOWDEN HILL
“Generic reference to a group of adits associated with the lime works at Bowden Hill. The summit of the hill is the site of a prehistoric hill fort. The entrances to the adits are outside the scheduled monument but the limestone tunnels may extend into the scheduled area.
There are quarries of limestone in the Hilderston and Bowden Hills, the latter of which is worked from the side of the hill. [Topographical Dictionary]
In Bowden hill is another limestone quarry, or rather mine, entered by a horizontal shaft in the side of the hill, and chambered out regularly, leaving columns to support the roof of what is becoming an immense cave. [OSA]
This mine is some 1 kilometre SE of the A706 at Easter Carriber. The hill has an extensive tunnel system leading to pillar and room workings. The works extend some 300m and are excavated either side of the present road [?]. The stone was used for agricultural uses and was transported by the Union Canal. Stone buildings and two kilns are noted on the site. There is a small pillar and room working on the top of Bowden Hill which has two entrances. [GSS in GSG, 2008]
Access via the fish farm at Easter Carriber (with the permission of the owner). Head southeast round the pond then follow the fence of the adjacent field. A series of at least 3 open entrances (low crawls over run ins) and 5 or more blocked entrances on the steep north side of Bowden Hill into an interconnected network of limestone tunnels. Some open passages with solid walls. Some passages lined with deads. Some areas collapsed so very cave-like. Areas of earth or mud floors and others with a cowering of loose rocks. Some passages entirely blocked. [GSG, 2018]
The Bowdenhill limeworks (Bowdenhill Limstone Company) was owned by Mr Forbes of Lochcote and worked by Mr Rankin. Mining operations began around the 19th century, until 1901. The limestone was used in agricultural purposes, probably spreading on the fields. It was quite a small venture based on the NE side of Bowdenhill, near the historic village of Torphichen.
Still evident are three massive single vent kilns built into the south side of the hill. The structures are at least twenty feet high with massive buttress supports on each supporting corner. The kilns appear to be in good condition and have been in-filled with rubble and the remains of the operation to prevent injury by falling into the 10 foot wide upper vents. There are also the remains of a further three clamp kilns to the North West, built into the lower levels of the hill.
There were eight mines tunnelled into the hillside of the ancient fort with four still in obvious existence. The shafts are built on the ‘room and pillar’ principle of mining engineering, leaving the shafts in a precarious state. They extend hundreds of metres through the hill towards Lochote on the other side. Just to the north of all this industry, lies a small decaying steading. It is probably the workers residence and the former house of Mr Rankin. It is formed of four buildings with room for horses and a small paddock at the rear. The houses are generally falling down and in a poor condition.
There are access roads and a tramway to the NW, past Easter Carriber kilns to the landing stage at the Union Canal at Bridge 48 for the transport of coal and lime. Limestone was also sent to Causewayend Ironworks. These kilns were eventually supplanted by the more economically situated kiln block at Easter Carriber.
Limestone is seen in close contact with dolerite at Bowden Hill. [Economic minerals of Scotland]
Carriber and Bowden Limestone At Carriber the limestone is worked by a mine This bed lies in a trough inclined to the north west There are some hitches in it from 1 to 14 feet The same bed is mined to the south below Bowden Hill where the mine is 200 yards long at the entrance to which the lime stone appears with a bed of shale above it upon which the greenstone of Bowden Hill rests The limestone also rises in a trough similar to that of Carriber It was at one time proposed to drain the loch at Lochcott which lies on the south side of the hill by means of this mine near which place this limestone was also at one time worked to a considerable extent. [THASS]
Alternate Names: Bowden Hill Limestone Mine
Notes: The coordinates given are for the buildings associated with the workings. There is no entrance at these coordinates.
The GSS description above (c. 1968) is either in error or seriously out of date. The road mentioned was the access road to the works which was never much more than a track and is now no longer visible.
Do not confuse with Bowden Hill Hematite Mine. Hennock, Devon.
The roof and walls of these tunnels are unstable in places. Do not enter without the proper safety equipment.
Also be aware mobile phones do not work underground (there is no signal). There has been at least one occasion when the emergency services have been called because those on the surface could not contact those underground who took longer than expected to return.
Extracted from http://registry.gsg.org.uk/sr/sitedetails.php?id=4366
BOWDEN HILL LIME WORKS
Bowden Hill Lime Works: These lime works are situated at the northern base of Bowden Hill. They consist of several kilns, all of which are disused with the exception of one that is now at work. The lime, which is of a bluish colour, is obtained in Bowden Hill and there are several levels running into the works contiguous to the kilns. They are the property of Mr Forbes, Lochcote and worked by Mr Rankin of Bowdenhill.
Name Book (inlithgowshire), 1856
(Location cited as NS 9779 7455). Bowdenhill Limekilns. A range of three single-draw kilns, much overgrown, with three clamp kilns nearby.
J R Hume 1976.
READ ABOUT A VISIT TO BOWDEN HILL MINE
You will find it here
ENJOY A FEW PHOTOGRAPHS FROM AROUND THE LOCHCOTE AREA
