Overview of West Calder

Located 16 miles (26 km) southwest of Edinburgh, in the old county of Midlothian, the village of West Calder was an important centre for the oil-shale economy in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Most housing dates from the mid-20th century though it has an earlier public library built in 1903. Funded by Carnegie money this building represents a fine example of the Art Nouveau style and has a decorative interior. The parish church (1643) was abandoned in 1880 and is now roofless. A memorial in the centre of the village remembers the fifteen men killed on the 10th January 1947 as a the result of an explosion at the Burngrange Oil-Shale mine which lay to the southwest of the village.

A half-mile (1 km) to the east stands Hermand House, an 18th-century mansion damaged by fire in 1970 but repaired to form flats.