Ballencrief Toll is a settlement in

West Lothian West Lothian (; ) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, bordering (in a clockwise direction) the City of Edinburgh council area, Scottish Borders, South Lanarkshire, North Lanarkshire and Falkirk (council area), Falkirk. The modern counci ...

, Scotland. It lies just beyond the northern edge of the town of

Bathgate Bathgate ( or , ) is a town in West Lothian, Scotland, west of Livingston, Scotland, Livingston and adjacent to the M8 motorway (Scotland), M8 motorway. Nearby towns are Linlithgow, Livingston, and West Calder. A number of villages fall under ...

, on the B792 road towards

Torphichen Torphichen ( ) is a historic small village located north of Bathgate in West Lothian, Scotland. The village is approximately west of Edinburgh, south-east of Falkirk and south-west of Linlithgow. The village had a population of 570 in the ( 2 ...

. The area is marked on some maps as Ballencrieff (not to be confused with the Ballencrieff village in East Lothian). The name means "the farm by the tree", from ''Baile na Craoibhe''. From around 1768 until 1880, the abundant limestone was processed locally in

kilns A kiln is a thermally insulated chamber, a type of oven, that produces temperatures sufficient to complete some process, such as hardening, drying, or chemical changes. Kilns have been used for millennia to turn objects made from clay into ...

to make

quicklime Calcium oxide (formula: Ca O), commonly known as quicklime or burnt lime, is a widely used chemical compound. It is a white, caustic, alkaline, crystalline solid at room temperature. The broadly used term '' lime'' connotes calcium-containin ...

. Immediately south-west of Ballancrieff Toll is the park which surrounded Balbardie House, a grand mansion built in the late 18th century for the influential Marjoribanks family, and demolished between 1954 and 1975. This is now Balbardie Park of Peace, which has a nine-hole golf course and sports facilities including a swimming pool, all run by the non-profit company West Lothian Leisure under their Xcite brand. A property with two small reservoirs, about half a mile to the north-east, has holiday accommodation and venues for events and weddings.

References

{{Reflist Bathgate Villages in West Lothian