Livingston (Scotland)

By road

The M8 (Edinburgh-Glasgow) runs to the north of Livingston and the usual approach is to exit at jcn 3 and turn south onto A899. Otherwise follow A71 which runs south of town.

By bus

Lothian Country Bus X27/28 runs daily from Edinburgh every 30 mins via Heriot Watt University at Riccarton to Livingston, taking an hour, and continuing to Deans and Bathgate. Bus 287 also plies between Livingston and Bathgate; change there for Bus 29 to Falkirk.
First Bus 600 runs from Edinburgh Airport every 30 mins via Ratho, Newbridge, Kirkliston, Winchburgh, Broxburn and Uphall taking an hour to Livingston, and continuing to Whitburn.
Stagecoach Fife X51 runs hourly from Glasgow Buchanan station to Livingston, taking an hour, and continuing via South Queensferry and over the Forth bridge to Dunfermline, another hour.
Blue Bus 77 runs M-Sat every 2-3 hours from Lanark, taking 40 mins.
Livingston is on Almondvale Ave between the two main shopping centres.

By rail

The basic assumption of a 1960s New Town is that everyone should drive, and railways are old hat. So the town straggles between two railway lines, neither particularly convenient.
is next to Carmondean Shopping Centre between Eliburn and Deans. It has trains from Edinburgh every 20 mins via Haymarket, Edinburgh Park and Uphall, taking 20 mins. These continue west via Bathgate and Glasgow Queen Street (50 mins) to Helensburgh or Milngavie.
is by the Murieston shops and has trains from Edinburgh every 30 mins via Haymarket, Slateford, Kingsknowe, Wester Hailes, Curriehill and Kirknewton, taking 30 mins. These continue through West Calder, Shotts and a dozen other halts, taking up to an hour to reach Glasgow Central.

SD Travel Bus 31 runs hourly from Livingston to Linlithgow and Torphichen, continuing to Bathgate. There's no bus along the lane to Cairnpapple Hill but it's an easy bike ride.

• Almond Valley

  phone: +44 1506 414957
  address: Millfield EH54 7AR
  Mostly for pre-teens, with museum, farm and narrow-gauge railway. Rides & slides & animals. The railway is 762 mm gauge, hauled by a rinky-dinky industrial diesel, and runs weekends April-Sept plus daily in summer school holidays.
• , 3 miles north of Livingston, is a 4000-year old ritual complex with Bronze Age and early Christian tombs. The burial chamber has been roofed over by a modern concrete dome but you can shimmy in. It's open daily April-Sept 09:30-17:30, adult £6.
• , 3 miles northwest of Livingston, has been a religious site at least since the Bronze Age. In medieval times it was a base for the Knights Hospitaller of St John of Jerusalem, providing shelter and treatment for pilgrims. In 1298 Edward I of England was injured by his own horse before the Battle of Falkirk and was treated here. It's open daily April-Sept Sa Su 13:00-17:00, adult £2.

• Walk the Almond Valley. The best of it is downstream: use the car park on Pumpherston Rd (by the bottle bank) and follow the riverside trail. From the weir this follows a feeder sluice to the Union Canal, which spans the valley by an impressive aqueduct.

• Deer Park Golf and Country Club

  phone: +44 1506 446699
  address: Golf Course Road EH54 8AB
  Country club with spa, swimming pool, ten-pin bowling and golf course: yellow tees 6193 yards par 72.

• Escape Livingston

  phone: +44 330 133 1620
  address: 11 Beveridge Square EH54 6QF
  Escape games: teams of 2 to 12 are locked in a room and have to solve a series of riddles, clues and puzzles to escape within the hour.
• Watch football (ie soccer) at

  Livingston FC

  address: Almondvale Stadium, Alderstone Rd EH54 7DN
  They play in the Scottish Premiership, the top tier of Scottish football. Their home ground is the 9000-capacity Almondvale Stadium aka "Tony Macaroni Arena".
• Vue Cinema is a multiplex in the main shopping mall at Almondvale Ave.
• West Lothian Highland Games are held on the last Saturday in May in Meadow Park in the nearby village of Bathgate. The next event is expected to be on Sat 30 May 2020 but tbc.

The core of Livingston is an extensive shopping area, bisected by Almondvale Avenue. The area east of the avenue is Livingston Centre and has more eating places. West side is the Designer Outlet; Vue Cinema is here. Together they have over 250 stores, generally open M-W F 09:00-19:00, Th Sa 09:00-20:00, Su 10:00-18:00. These 250 are relentlessly the same as each other and as any other retail unit in the country, not least by lying empty: as of mid-2019 only about half the units are occupied.

There's no stand-out, but lots of budget places in the main mall of Almondvale, with others in the villages of Uphall and Mid Calder.

• La Vita Viva

  phone: +44 1506 885138
  address: 35b Main St, Mid Calder EH53 0AN
  Small restaurant with good selection.

• Tony Macaroni

  phone: +44 1506 410505
  address: The Hub, Almondvale Cres, Livingston EH54 6QX
  Large Italian restaurant on two levels.

• Hong

  phone: +44 1506 441832
  address: 149a Uphall Station Rd, Pumpherston EH53 0PB
  Basic Chinese, sit in or take away.

• Sapphire

  phone: +44 1506 417272
  address: Units 2 & 3, Bankton Centre, Murieston
  Basic Chinese, eat in or takeaway.

• Imperial Palace

  phone: +44 1506 438656
  address: 14 Marrfield Terrace, Uphall Station EH54 5PY

• Khushis

  phone: +44 1506 884514
  address: 15 Bank St, Mid Calder EH53 0AS
  Cheap and cheerful place, byob.

• Zaika

  phone: +44 1506 461561
  address: 1 Follyburn Place EH54 6BF
  This is nowadays just a takeaway.

• Frankie & Benny's

  phone: +44 1506 465420
  address: Unit 10 Dedridge N Rd, Livingston EH54 6XG
  Budget chain eatery.

• Brucefield Farm

  phone: +44 1506 417788
  address: Brucefield Industrial Estate, Rutherford Square EH54 9BU
  Family-friendly carvery, does takeaway.

• Lime Kiln

  phone: +44 1506 410661
  address: Almondvale Boulevard EH54 6QT
  Family-friendly but erratic eating place.
• Beefeater Restaurant & Pub is within the Premier Inn at M8 jcn 3, open daily 07:00-23:00.

• Livingston Inn

  phone: +44 1506 413054
  address: 2 Main St Livingston EH54 7AF
  Pleasant old pub with food, has rooms.
• Harvester on Almondvale Ave is a chain pub with food open daily 09:00-20:00.

• The New Year Field

  address: Unit 1, Livingston Designer Outlet, Almondvale Avenue EH54 6QX
  JD Wetherspoons pub with food

• Linwater Caravan Park

  phone: +44 131 333 3326
  address: Clifton Rd, East Calder EH53 0HT
  Park for touring caravans, motorhomes and tents, open all year.

• Premier Inn Livingston

  phone: +44 871 527 8632
  address: Deer Park Drive Livingston EH54 8AD
  Reliable budget chain with 74 rooms.

• Livingston Lodge Hotel

  phone: +44 1506 460841
  address: Hawk Brae Livingston EH54 6TW
  Decent mid range place.

• Macdonald Houston House

  phone: +44 344 879 9043
  address: Uphall EH52 6JS
  3-star hotel, 71 rooms. 16th century manor house set in 20 acres of gardens & woods.

• Best Western Hilcroft Hotel

  phone: +44 0333 003 4158
  address: East Main Street, Whitburn EH47 0JU
  Clean comfy modern hotel with 32 rooms.

Good signal everywhere. The larger pubs and hotels have free wifi.

• Edinburgh and Glasgow both rate as must-see.
• Linlithgow has an impressive ruined medieval palace, birthplace of Mary Queen of Scots, and the coast is attractive around Blackness Castle.
• To discover if they made a better job of Scotland's other four New Towns, see East Kilbride, Glenrothes, Cumbernauld and Irvine.