Scottish Towns-Cities. (Linlithgow.)

Linlithgow (/lɪnˈlɪθɡoʊ/; Scottish Gaelic: Gleann Iucha, Scots: Lithgae) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland. It was historically West Lothian’s county town, reflected in the county’s alternative name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies south of its two most prominent landmarks: Linlithgow Palace and Linlithgow Loch, and north of the Union Canal.

Linlithgow’s patron saint is Saint Michael and its motto is St. Michael is kind to strangers. A statue of the saint holding the burgh coat of arms stands on the High Street.

Linlithgow is located in the north-east of West Lothian, close to the border with the Falkirk Council area (historically part of Stirlingshire). It lies 20 miles (32 km) west of Edinburgh along the main railway route to Glasgow. Before the construction of the M8 and M9 motorways and the opening of the Forth Road Bridge, the town lay on the main road from Edinburgh to Stirling, Perth and Inverness, while the canal system linked the burgh to Edinburgh and Glasgow. The nearby village of Blackness once served as the burgh’s port. Linlithgow is overlooked by its local hill, Cockleroi.

The name Linlithgow comes from the Old British lynn llaith cau meaning “lake in the damp hollow”. Originally “Linlithgow” referred to the loch itself, the town being known as just “Lithgow” (hence the common surname). Folk etymology associated this name with the Gaelic liath-chù meaning “grey dog”, likely the origin of the black bitch on the burgh arms.

The chief historic attraction of Linlithgow is the remains of Linlithgow Palace, the birthplace of James V and Mary, Queen of Scots, and probably Scotland’s finest surviving late medieval secular building. The present palace was started (on an older site) in 1424 by James I of Scotland. It was burnt in 1746, and, whilst unroofed, it is still largely complete in terms of its apartments, though very few of the original furnishings survived.

Linlithgow was also the site of the Battle of Linlithgow Bridge at the western edge of the town. The bridge no longer stands. The roadway to Linlithgow over the River Avon is described by scholars as a lifted road.

Besides the palace, a second attraction, standing adjacent, is the 15th century St. Michael’s Church. Its western tower originally had a distinctive stone crown spire, of the type seen also on St Giles Cathedral in Edinburgh, and Newcastle Cathedral, but it was damaged in a storm in 1768 then removed in 1821. In 1964 a controversial replacement spire in aluminium in a modern style by Scots architect Sir Basil Spence[citation needed][Credited elsewhere to sculptor Geoffrey Clarke], representing Christ’s crown of thorns, was added.