117-524: Linlithgow ( / l ɪ n ˈ l ɪ θ ɡ oʊ / lin- LITH -goh ; Scots : Lithgae ; Scottish Gaelic : Gleann Iucha ) is a town in West Lothian , Scotland . It was historically West Lothian's county town , reflected in the county's historical name of Linlithgowshire. An ancient town, it lies in the Central Belt on a historic route between Edinburgh and Falkirk beside Linlithgow Loch . The town
234-905: A 1996 trial before the Census, by the General Register Office for Scotland (GRO), suggested that there were around 1.5 million speakers of Scots, with 30% of Scots responding "Yes" to the question "Can you speak the Scots language?", but only 17% responding "Aye" to the question "Can you speak Scots?". It was also found that older, working-class people were more likely to answer in the affirmative. The University of Aberdeen Scots Leid Quorum performed its own research in 1995, cautiously suggesting that there were 2.7 million speakers, though with clarification as to why these figures required context. The GRO questions, as freely acknowledged by those who set them, were not as detailed and systematic as those of
351-591: A Methodist chapel (now an evangelical church, St. John's, which meets in Linlithgow Academy on a Sunday morning); St Peter's , an architecturally distinctive Scottish Episcopal church; and a Roman Catholic church, also called St Michael's, which was used as an ambulance depot by Polish servicemen during the Second World War. The Linlithgow Museum is a volunteer-run local history museum in Linlithgow. The museum
468-625: A Scots language listing. The Ferret, a UK -based fact-checking service, wrote an exploratory article in December 2022 to address misconceptions about the Scots language to improve public awareness of its endangered status. In Scotland, Scots is spoken in the Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles , Caithness , Arran and Campbeltown . In Ulster , the northern province in Ireland , its area
585-488: A Scots renaissance style with turrets by James Graham Fairley in 1900. The Academy moved to a new school complex on Braehead Road in 1968 towards the south-west of the town and the old academy buildings are now home to Low Port Primary School. The town has five primary schools : Linlithgow Primary School, St Joseph's RC Primary School, Linlithgow Bridge Primary School, Low Port Primary School and Springfield Primary School. Donaldson's School , Scotland's national school for
702-407: A black bitch chained to an oak tree on an island, and those born within the town are known as "black bitches". In his account of a tour of Scotland, published in 1679, an English gentleman, Thomas Kirk, described the arms of the town as "a black bitch tied to a tree, in a floating island. We enquired for a story about it, but could meet with none: their schoolmaster told us it proceeded from the name of
819-462: A collection of children's nursery rhymes and poems in Scots. The book contains a five-page glossary of contemporary Scots words and their pronunciations. Alexander Gray 's translations into Scots constitute the greater part of his work, and are the main basis for his reputation. In 1983, William Laughton Lorimer 's translation of the New Testament from the original Greek was published. Scots
936-583: A college in the town. The nearest colleges are West Lothian College in Livingston and Forth Valley College in Falkirk . Linlithgow Rose Community Football Club (formed from a partnership of Linlithgow Rose Football Club and BFC Linlithgow) has about 500 player members, involved in soccer 4s, soccer 7s, girls, youth and adult junior football. The club has a dedicated goalkeeping school and referee training programme and has been awarded Community Level status in both
1053-433: A continuum ranging from traditional broad Scots to Scottish Standard English . Many speakers are diglossic and may be able to code-switch along the continuum depending on the situation. Where on this continuum English-influenced Scots becomes Scots-influenced English is difficult to determine. Because standard English now generally has the role of a Dachsprache ('roofing language'), disputes often arise as to whether
1170-532: 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 Geoffrey Clarke , representing Christ's crown of thorns, was added to the tower. The church was used in the early 17th century as host for the General Assembly of
1287-521: A generally east–west orientation and is centred on what used to be the main Edinburgh-Stirling road; this now forms the main thoroughfare called the High Street. Plots of farmed land, known as rigs, ran perpendicular to the High Street and comprised much of the town's development until the 19th century. Growth was restricted to the north by Linlithgow Loch, and by the steep hill to the south, but, in
SECTION 10
#17330847715621404-623: A local demonstration. However, in February 2022, Greene King confirmed that a name change to "The Willow Tree" would take place. Linlithgow has several parks and recreation grounds across the town. The largest public area is the Peel and Palace Royal Park beside Linlithgow Loch and palace, including a large open grassland (the Peel), a circulatory walk around the Loch and mature trees to the south. Linlithgow Rose Garden
1521-454: A more phonological manner rather than following the pan-dialect conventions of modern literary Scots, especially for the northern and insular dialects of Scots. James Gillespie Graham James Gillespie Graham (11 June 1776 – 21 March 1855) was a Scottish architect , prominent in the early 19th century. Graham was born in Dunblane on 11 June 1776. He was the son of Malcolm Gillespie,
1638-674: A name for the Lowland vernacular. The Gaelic of Scotland is now usually called Scottish Gaelic . Northumbrian Old English had been established in what is now southeastern Scotland as far as the River Forth by the seventh century, as the region was part of the Anglo-Saxon kingdom of Northumbria . By the tenth century, Middle Irish was the language of the Scottish court , and the common use of Old English remained largely confined to this area until
1755-413: A number of paradigms for distinguishing between languages and dialects exist, they often render contradictory results. Broad Scots is at one end of a bipolar linguistic continuum , with Scottish Standard English at the other. Scots is sometimes regarded as a variety of English, though it has its own distinct dialects; other scholars treat Scots as a distinct Germanic language, in the way that Norwegian
1872-528: A public effort to save the facade. Other prominent Victorian buildings in the town include the turreted Royal Bank (erected in 1959), the Star And Garter Hotel (converted in 1847) and the Scots revival styled St. Michael's Hotel (1886). Animal glue was produced at the Gowanstanks works for many years, on the site now occupied by St. Josephs primary school. Linlithgow has been cited as the location of
1989-612: A representative sample of Scotland's adult population) claim to speak Scots to varying degrees. The 2011 UK census was the first to ask residents of Scotland about Scots. A campaign called Aye Can was set up to help individuals answer the question. The specific wording used was "Which of these can you do? Tick all that apply" with options for "Understand", "Speak", "Read" and "Write" in three columns: English, Scottish Gaelic and Scots. Of approximately 5.1 million respondents, about 1.2 million (24%) could speak, read and write Scots, 3.2 million (62%) had no skills in Scots and
2106-512: A retail park situated in Linlithgow Bridge. There are also a diverse range of local retailers in the High Street. In 2012, there were controversial proposals for a new retail and housing development to the east of the town which were opposed by several local groups. However, in November 2013, the planning application was rejected due to the effect it would have on the towns character. Linlithgow
2223-491: A solicitor. He was christened as James Gillespie. In 1810, under the name James Gillespie, he was living in a flat at 10 Union Street at the head of Leith Walk in Edinburgh. By 1820 he had moved to a far more luxurious house at 34 Albany Street, not far from his earlier flat. He is most notable for his work in the Scottish baronial style, as at Ayton Castle , and he also worked in the Gothic Revival style, in which he
2340-501: A suitable medium of education or culture". Students reverted to Scots outside the classroom, but the reversion was not complete. What occurred, and has been occurring ever since, is a process of language attrition , whereby successive generations have adopted more and more features from Standard English. This process has accelerated rapidly since widespread access to mass media in English and increased population mobility became available after
2457-455: A visitor centre and a loch) and Muiravonside Country Park between Linlithgow and Torphichen (170 acres of woodland and grassland). Linlithgow railway station is the main railway station serving the town and is located on the Glasgow to Edinburgh via Falkirk Line . It is served by ScotRail services from Edinburgh Waverley to Dunblane , and the daily train between Glasgow Queen Street and
SECTION 20
#17330847715622574-738: Is a large open public park in the centre of southern Linlithgow containing a Friar's Well. The well originally provided water for the former carmelite priory, destroyed during the Scottish Reformation and is now covered with a stone arch. The park contains several mature trees. Kettlestoun Mains is a woodland walk beside the Avon Lagoon and near the former site of the Battle of Linlithgow Bridge . Just outside of Linlithgow, there are several country parks , including Beecraigs Country Park (a 370 hectare park between Bathgate and Linlithgow with forests,
2691-558: Is a mature rose garden in the area adjacent to the Kirk grave yard and the rear of the Burgh Halls and contains a large bronze statue of John Hope, 7th Earl of Hopetoun and Marquess of Linlithgow (created in 1911). As of 2021, the rose gardens are in the process of being improved. Learmonth Gardens is located on the south side of the railway across from the canal basin and were given to Linlithgow in 1916 in memory of Alexander Learmonth, who
2808-575: Is also used, though this is more often taken to mean the Lallans literary form . Scots in Ireland is known in official circles as Ulster-Scots ( Ulstèr-Scotch in revivalist Ulster-Scots) or "Ullans", a recent neologism merging Ulster and Lallans. Scots is a contraction of Scottis , the Older Scots and northern version of late Old English : Scottisc (modern English "Scottish"), which replaced
2925-589: Is closely linked to but distinct from Danish . Native speakers sometimes refer to their vernacular as braid Scots (or "broad Scots" in English) or use a dialect name such as the " Doric " or the " Buchan Claik ". The old-fashioned Scotch , an English loan, occurs occasionally, especially in Ulster. The term Lallans , a variant of the Modern Scots word lawlands [ˈlo̜ːlən(d)z, ˈlɑːlənz] ,
3042-634: Is home to a major computing centre owned by Oracle and to the telecommunication company Calnex Solutions, founded in 2006 in the town and which floated on the AIM market in September 2020. Former industries include the St. Magdalene's distillery , the Nobel explosives works, paper mills and many tanneries. The Regent Centre, now known as Nobel House, replaced the previous 1908 build Nobel Explosive Company Works Factory in 1983 and
3159-499: Is home to a small shopping centre, with several shops and a bank. The Riding of the Marches, held in one form or another since the mid-16th century and nowadays celebrated on the first Tuesday after the second Thursday in June, involves young and old in the tradition of checking the burgh's perimeter, including the town's historic port of Blackness. Although today's activities are centred more on
3276-642: Is housed in the Linlithgow Partnership Centre, along with the West Lothian Family History Society and library. St Michael's is a community hospital in the town, operated by NHS Lothian . The hospital has its origins in the Linlithgow Combination Poorhouse and Infirmary which opened on the site in 1856. An infectious diseases hospital was built on an adjacent site in around 1900. The poorhouse infirmary and
3393-552: Is in Scots, for example. Scott introduced vernacular dialogue to his novels. Other well-known authors like Robert Louis Stevenson , William Alexander, George MacDonald , J. M. Barrie and other members of the Kailyard school like Ian Maclaren also wrote in Scots or used it in dialogue. In the Victorian era popular Scottish newspapers regularly included articles and commentary in the vernacular, often of unprecedented proportions. In
3510-796: Is lykest to our language..." ( For though several have written of (the subject) in English, which is the language most similar to ours... ). However, with the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England, most writing in Scotland came to be done in the English fashion. In his first speech to the English Parliament in March 1603, King James VI and I declared, "Hath not God first united these two Kingdomes both in Language, Religion, and similitude of maners?" . Following James VI's move to London,
3627-482: Is served by McGill's Scotland East bus service X38 between Edinburgh and Falkirk via Corstorphine, Kirkliston & Winchburgh. Linlithgow used to be served by Lothian Country services X38 & EX2, these were suspended in March 2020 and later withdrawn. Linlithgow has one Secondary school : Linlithgow Academy . The original Linlithgow Academy was housed in a purpose build sandstone building in East Port, designed in
Linlithgow - Misplaced Pages Continue
3744-457: Is situated approximately 20 miles (32 km) west of Edinburgh . During the medieval period, the town grew in prominence as a royal burgh and residence around Linlithgow Palace . In later centuries, Linlithgow became a centre of industry in leather making and other materials, before developing rapidly in the Victorian era with the opening of the Union Canal in the 1820s and the arrival of
3861-523: Is sometimes used in contemporary fiction, such as the Edinburgh dialect of Scots in Trainspotting by Irvine Welsh (later made into a motion picture of the same name ). But'n'Ben A-Go-Go by Matthew Fitt is a cyberpunk novel written entirely in what Wir Ain Leed ("Our Own Language") calls "General Scots". Like all cyberpunk work, it contains imaginative neologisms . The Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam
3978-615: Is the Kirkgate, a processional route to the palace from the High Street. This contains the Cross Well of 1807 (redesigned by James Haldane ) which is said to be replica of its 1628 predecessor. North of the well stands the former civic home of the Burgh Council, the Town House of 1668 which was created under the direction of the master mason John Smith and now forms part of the complex known as
4095-550: Is used to describe the Scots language after 1700. A seminal study of Scots was undertaken by JAH Murray and published as Dialect of the Southern Counties of Scotland . Murray's results were given further publicity by being included in Alexander John Ellis 's book On Early English Pronunciation, Part V alongside results from Orkney and Shetland, as well as the whole of England. Murray and Ellis differed slightly on
4212-529: Is usually defined through the works of Robert John Gregg to include the counties of Down , Antrim , Londonderry and Donegal (especially in East Donegal and Inishowen ). More recently, the Fintona -born linguist Warren Maguire has argued that some of the criteria that Gregg used as distinctive of Ulster-Scots are common in south-west Tyrone and were found in other sites across Northern Ireland investigated by
4329-410: The 2022 , Linlithgow ward elected one SNP, one Labour and one Liberal Democrat councillor, namely Pauline Orr, Tom Conn and Sally Pattle, respectively. 2022 was the first election which saw Linlithgow ward elect any female councillors to West Lothian Council. At the local level, the Linlithgow and Linlithgow Bridge Community Council is the local Community council . The burgh's coat of arms features
4446-527: The Burgh Halls . This replaced a previous hall or Tolbooth demolished by Oliver Cromwell 's army in 1650. Much of its original interior was removed in a modernisation project of 1962. In June 1622 Katherine Rannald (alias Broun) from Kilpunt and her daughter Barbara Home (alias Winzet) were imprisoned in the Tolbooth on suspicion of witchcraft. Linlithgow was also the site of the Battle of Linlithgow Bridge at
4563-567: The Celtic language that was historically restricted to most of the Scottish Highlands , the Hebrides , and Galloway after the sixteenth century; or Broad Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Standard English . Modern Scots is a sister language of Modern English , as the two diverged from the same medieval form of English. Scots is recognised as an indigenous language of Scotland by
4680-597: The Covenanter's Prison together with his wife and other family members. In 1815 he married Margaret Ann Graham, daughter of a wealthy landowner, William Graham of Orchill (d.1825) in Perthshire . Together they had two daughters. In 1825, on the death of his wife's father, the couple inherited his large country estate, and James thereafter became known as James Gillespie Graham. His wife died in 1826, and he married again, to Elizabeth Campbell, daughter of Major John Campbell of
4797-470: The English Dialect Dictionary , edited by Joseph Wright . Wright had great difficulty in recruiting volunteers from Scotland, as many refused to cooperate with a venture that regarded Scots as a dialect of English, and he obtained enough help only through the assistance from a Professor Shearer in Scotland. Wright himself rejected the argument that Scots was a separate language, saying that this
Linlithgow - Misplaced Pages Continue
4914-630: The Fife Circle Line . The station opened on 21 February 1842. The M9 Motorway is located on the northern outskirts of the town, connecting Linlithgow with Edinburgh, Stirling and Falking via motorway . The main east/west road through the town is the A803 road , part of which is the High St of Linlithgow. The main north/south road through the town is the A706 road. The nearest airport is Edinburgh Airport . Linlithgow
5031-501: The Linguistic Survey of Scotland . Dialects of Scots include Insular Scots , Northern Scots , Central Scots , Southern Scots and Ulster Scots . It has been difficult to determine the number of speakers of Scots via census, because many respondents might interpret the question "Do you speak Scots?" in different ways. Campaigners for Scots pressed for this question to be included in the 2001 UK National Census . The results from
5148-706: The Protestant Church of Scotland adopted the 1611 Authorized King James Version of the Bible; subsequently, the Acts of Union 1707 led to Scotland joining England to form the Kingdom of Great Britain , having a single Parliament of Great Britain based in London. After the Union and the shift of political power to England, the use of Scots was discouraged by many in authority and education, as
5265-772: The Romance languages via ecclesiastical and legal Latin , Norman French , and later Parisian French , due to the Auld Alliance . Additionally, there were Dutch and Middle Low German influences due to trade with and immigration from the Low Countries . Scots also includes loan words in the legal and administrative fields resulting from contact with Middle Irish , and reflected in early medieval legal documents. Contemporary Scottish Gaelic loans are mainly for geographical and cultural features, such as cèilidh , loch , whisky , glen and clan . Cumbric and Pictish ,
5382-461: The Second World War . It has recently taken on the nature of wholesale language shift , sometimes also termed language change , convergence or merger . By the end of the twentieth century, Scots was at an advanced stage of language death over much of Lowland Scotland . Residual features of Scots are often regarded as slang. A 2010 Scottish Government study of "public attitudes towards
5499-579: The University of Aberdeen , and only included reared speakers (people raised speaking Scots), not those who had learned the language. Part of the difference resulted from the central question posed by surveys: "Do you speak Scots?". In the Aberdeen University study, the question was augmented with the further clause "... or a dialect of Scots such as Border etc.", which resulted in greater recognition from respondents. The GRO concluded that there simply
5616-427: The 13th century until 1559, when it was destroyed during the Scottish Reformation . The grounds of the friary are split between a public park (Rosemount Park and Friar's Well) and a private woodland (Rosemount woods) and estate, occupied by a 19th-century villa, Nether Parkley. The first murder using a firearm in Scotland took place in the High Street of the town on 23 January 1570 when James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray
5733-453: The Church of Scotland and one of the national covenants was signed within. The church was extensively altered and renovated in the 19th century, with James Gillespie Graham demolishing the chancel arch and added fake-masonry plaster vaults, and then later Honeyman and Keppie rebuilding the chancel arch and added a choir vestry. A Carmelite Friary was located in the southern part of town from
5850-435: The Crowns in 1603, the Standard English of England came to have an increasing influence on the spelling of Scots through the increasing influence and availability of books printed in England. After the Acts of Union in 1707 the emerging Scottish form of Standard English replaced Scots for most formal writing in Scotland. The eighteenth-century Scots revival saw the introduction of a new literary language descended from
5967-438: The High Street. In 2019, the population of the Linlithgow ward (which includes the town and greater area) was 16,499. The name Linlithgow comes from the Old Welsh lynn llaith cau meaning "lake in the moist 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
SECTION 50
#17330847715626084-435: The Highland Tolbooth Church (now The Hub ) in Edinburgh. His houses include Cambusnethan House in Lanarkshire. He was responsible for laying out the Moray Estate of Edinburgh's New Town , and for the design of Hamilton Square and adjoining streets in the New Town of Birkenhead , England, for William Laird, brother-in-law of William Harley , major developer of the New Town upon Blythswood Hill in Glasgow. According to
6201-399: The Kingdom of Great Britain, there is ample evidence that Scots was widely held to be an independent sister language forming a pluricentric diasystem with English. German linguist Heinz Kloss considered Modern Scots a Halbsprache ('half language') in terms of an abstand and ausbau languages framework, although today in Scotland most people's speech is somewhere on
6318-399: The Linlithgow Players and the 41 Club. The town also has its own weekly local newspaper, the Linlithgow Gazette. The Linlithgow Union Canal Society runs a canal museum and operates narrowboat tours from Manse Road basin. The town has two Church of Scotland parish churches: St Michael's and the smaller St. Ninian's Craigmailen. There are also churches of other denominations, including
6435-428: The Palace which is a music festival held annually in August by the loch and has brought acts including Nile Rodgers , Kaiser Chiefs , Travis , Simple Minds , The Proclaimers , Texas and many others to play in the town. The Charlatans and Deacon Blue headlined Party at the Palace 2019. The sense of community is enhanced by many active local groups such as Linlithgow Amateur Musical Productions (LAMP), Lithca Lore,
6552-409: The Philosopher's Stane , a Scots translation of the first Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone , was published by Matthew Fitt . The vowel system of Modern Scots: Vowel length is usually conditioned by the Scottish vowel length rule . The orthography of Early Scots had become more or less standardised by the middle to late sixteenth century. After the Union of
6669-472: The SFA Quality Mark and West Lothian Council Club Accreditation schemes. Scots language Scots is a language variety descended from Early Middle English in the West Germanic language family . Most commonly spoken in the Scottish Lowlands , the Northern Isles of Scotland , and northern Ulster in Ireland (where the local dialect is known as Ulster Scots ), it is sometimes called: Lowland Scots , to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic ,
6786-480: The Scots language was also featured. It was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. The Scottish Government set its first Scots Language Policy in 2015, in which it pledged to support its preservation and encourage respect, recognition and use of Scots. The Scottish Parliament website also offers some information on
6903-419: The Scots language" found that 64% of respondents (around 1,000 individuals in a representative sample of Scotland's adult population) "don't really think of Scots as a language", also finding "the most frequent speakers are least likely to agree that it is not a language (58%) and those never speaking Scots most likely to do so (72%)". Before the Treaty of Union 1707 , when Scotland and England joined to form
7020-512: The Scottish Executive recognises and respects Scots (in all its forms) as a distinct language, and does not consider the use of Scots to be an indication of poor competence in English. Evidence for its existence as a separate language lies in the extensive body of Scots literature, its independent – if somewhat fluid – orthographic conventions , and in its former use as the language of the original Parliament of Scotland . Because Scotland retained distinct political, legal, and religious systems after
7137-495: The Scottish government, a regional or minority language of Europe, and a vulnerable language by UNESCO . In a Scottish census from 2022, over 1.5 million people in Scotland reported being able to speak Scots. Given that there are no universally accepted criteria for distinguishing a language from a dialect , scholars and other interested parties often disagree about the linguistic, historical and social status of Scots, particularly its relationship to English . Although
SECTION 60
#17330847715627254-505: The Standard English cognate . This Written Scots drew not only on the vernacular, but also on the King James Bible , and was heavily influenced by the norms and conventions of Augustan English poetry . Consequently, this written Scots looked very similar to contemporary Standard English, suggesting a somewhat modified version of that, rather than a distinct speech form with a phonological system which had been developing independently for many centuries. This modern literary dialect, "Scots of
7371-497: The Union, many Scots terms passed into Scottish English. During the 2010s, increased interest was expressed in the language. The status of the language was raised in Scottish schools, with Scots being included in the new national school curriculum . Previously in Scotland's schools there had been little education taking place through the medium of Scots, although it may have been covered superficially in English lessons, which could entail reading some Scots literature and observing
7488-467: The activities of those such as Thomas Sheridan , who in 1761 gave a series of lectures on English elocution . Charging a guinea at a time (about £200 in today's money ), they were attended by over 300 men, and he was made a freeman of the City of Edinburgh . Following this, some of the city's intellectuals formed the Select Society for Promoting the Reading and Speaking of the English Language in Scotland. These eighteenth-century activities would lead to
7605-521: The book" or Standard Scots, once again gave Scots an orthography of its own, lacking neither "authority nor author". This literary language used throughout Lowland Scotland and Ulster, embodied by writers such as Allan Ramsay, Robert Fergusson, Robert Burns, Sir Walter Scott, Charles Murray , David Herbison , James Orr, James Hogg and William Laidlaw among others, is well described in the 1921 Manual of Modern Scots . Other authors developed dialect writing, preferring to represent their own speech in
7722-435: The border between English and Scots dialects. Scots was studied alongside English and Scots Gaelic in the Linguistic Survey of Scotland at the University of Edinburgh , which began in 1949 and began to publish results in the 1970s. Also beginning in the 1970s, the Atlas Linguarum Europae studied the Scots language used at 15 sites in Scotland, each with its own dialect. From the mid-sixteenth century, written Scots
7839-457: The building is recorded as dating to the 18th century. In early December 2021, the pub's owners, the Greene King chain, announced plans to change the name of the pub to "The Black Hound" on the basis that the original name had "racist and offensive connotations". The change was opposed by some local residents, who started a petition to retain the old name. By mid-December 2021, the petition had received over 10,000 signatures and had also resulted in
7956-424: The colourful parades through the town that involve bands and floats decorated by local groups, the more ceremonial duties of the Marches are still performed, and a variety of local groups ensure that the traditions, old and new, are maintained. There are many other events during the year such as the Children's Gala Day, the Linlithgow Folk Festival and a pre-Christmas Victorian Street Fayre, and since 2014, Party at
8073-508: The complementary decline of French made Scots the prestige dialect of most of eastern Scotland. By the sixteenth century, Middle Scots had established orthographic and literary norms largely independent of those developing in England. From 1610 to the 1690s during the Plantation of Ulster , some 200,000 Scots-speaking Lowlanders settled as colonists in Ulster in Ireland. In the core areas of Scots settlement, Scots outnumbered English settlers by five or six to one. The name Modern Scots
8190-403: The creation of Scottish Standard English . Scots remained the vernacular of many rural communities and the growing number of urban working-class Scots. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the use of Scots as a literary language was revived by several prominent Scotsmen such as Robert Burns . Such writers established a new cross-dialect literary norm. Scots terms were included in
8307-438: The deaf, is based in the town, having relocated from Edinburgh to a new campus (the Sensational Learning Centre) in Linlithgow in 2008, designed by JM Architects. The school was built on the site of a former Signetics electronics factory that had opened in 1969 during the Silicon Glen period of development, which itself was built on an earlier Racal factory that produced defence radars and displays. Linlithgow does not have
8424-434: The earlier i-mutated version Scyttisc . Before the end of the fifteenth century, English speech in Scotland was known as "English" (written Ynglis or Inglis at the time), whereas "Scottish" ( Scottis ) referred to Gaelic . By the beginning of the fifteenth century, the English language used in Scotland had arguably become a distinct language, albeit one lacking a name which clearly distinguished it from all
8541-744: The early twentieth century, a renaissance in the use of Scots occurred, its most vocal figure being Hugh MacDiarmid whose benchmark poem " A Drunk Man Looks at the Thistle " (1926) did much to demonstrate the power of Scots as a modern idiom. Other contemporaries were Douglas Young , John Buchan , Sydney Goodsir Smith , Robert Garioch , Edith Anne Robertson and Robert McLellan . The revival extended to verse and other literature. In 1955, three Ayrshire men – Sandy MacMillan, an English teacher at Ayr Academy ; Thomas Limond, noted town chamberlain of Ayr ; and A. L. "Ross" Taylor, rector of Cumnock Academy – collaborated to write Bairnsangs ("Child Songs"),
8658-505: The fifteenth century, much literature based on the Royal Court in Edinburgh and the University of St Andrews was produced by writers such as Robert Henryson , William Dunbar , Gavin Douglas and David Lyndsay . The Complaynt of Scotland was an early printed work in Scots. The Eneados is a Middle Scots translation of Virgil 's Aeneid , completed by Gavin Douglas in 1513. After
8775-570: The first petrol pump in Scotland. A plaque on the High Street records that Scotland's first petrol pump was installed at a garage here in 1919. In 1940, the Neo-Georgian County Buildings were completed in the town and became the home of Linlithgowshire Council. They were later renamed as the Tam Dalyell House and are now the Linlithgow Partnership Centre, home to the town library and museum. In 1967, two large tracts of land on
8892-477: The infectious diseases hospital came together to form St Michael's Home and Hospital in 1932. The combined facility joined the National Health Service in 1948. The poorhouse building was demolished in 1969 and replaced with the current modern facility. A local pub and hotel on West Port named "The Black Bitch" (after the town's coat of arms) is reputed to be one of Scotland's oldest pubs although much of
9009-603: The language in Scots. In September 2024, experts of the Council of Europe called on the UK Government to "boost support for regional and minority languages", including the Scots Language. The serious use of the Scots language for news, encyclopaediae, documentaries, etc., remains rare. It is reportedly reserved for niches where it is deemed acceptable, e.g. comedy, Burns Night or traditions' representations. Since 2016,
9126-567: The language used in different situations. Such an approach would be inappropriate for a Census." Thus, although it was acknowledged that the "inclusion of such a Census question would undoubtedly raise the profile of Scots", no question about Scots was, in the end, included in the 2001 Census. The Scottish Government's Pupils in Scotland Census 2008 found that 306 pupils spoke Scots as their main home language. A Scottish Government study in 2010 found that 85% of around 1000 respondents (being
9243-489: The late 19th and early 20th centuries, development began much further south of the High Street. In the late 20th century, demand for housing led to many residential developments much further south, as well as spreading into new areas. This southward development was bisected by the Union Canal and latterly by the main Edinburgh-Glasgow railway line, and today there are traffic problems because there are only three places in
9360-571: The local dialect. Much of the material used was often Standard English disguised as Scots, which caused upset among proponents of Standard English and proponents of Scots alike. One example of the educational establishment's approach to Scots is, "Write a poem in Scots. (It is important not to be worried about spelling in this – write as you hear the sounds in your head.)", whereas guidelines for English require teaching pupils to be "writing fluently and legibly with accurate spelling and punctuation". A course in Scots language and culture delivered through
9477-523: 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 town has
9594-487: The medieval Brittonic languages of Northern England and Scotland, are the suspected source of a small number of Scots words, such as lum (derived from Cumbric) meaning "chimney". From the thirteenth century, the Early Scots language spread further into Scotland via the burghs , which were proto-urban institutions first established by King David I . In fourteenth-century Scotland, the growth in prestige of Early Scots and
9711-591: The medium of Standard English and produced by the Open University (OU) in Scotland, the Open University's School of Languages and Applied Linguistics as well as Education Scotland became available online for the first time in December 2019. In the 2011 Scottish census , a question on Scots language ability was featured In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , a question in relation to
9828-559: The mid 20th century, the chemists became a restaurant and is now the Four Mary's pub (a plaque records the history). In December 1887 a new events venue was completed in a castle style with turrets and named the Victoria Hall. In 1956, the Hall was sold for use as a Ritz cinema and later was used as a theatre, before falling out of use in the 21st century and subsequently being demolished, despite
9945-420: The newspaper The National has regularly published articles in the language. The 2010s also saw an increasing number of English books translated in Scots and becoming widely available, particularly those in popular children's fiction series such as The Gruffalo , Harry Potter , Diary of a Wimpy Kid , and several by Roald Dahl and David Walliams . In 2021, the music streaming service Spotify created
10062-422: The northern side of the High Street (with their associated pre 19th century buildings) were demolished and replaced by 90 flats, garages and public buildings (including a library and health centre ) in a brutalist style project named the 'Vennel redevelopment'. The name Vennel coming from the term for a passageway between the gables of two buildings. While the development won a Saltire Housing award in 1969, it
10179-401: The old court Scots, but with an orthography that had abandoned some of the more distinctive old Scots spellings and adopted many standard English spellings. Despite the updated spelling, however, the rhymes make it clear that a Scots pronunciation was intended. These writings also introduced what came to be known as the apologetic apostrophe , generally occurring where a consonant exists in
10296-517: The origin of the black bitch on the burgh arms. Evidence of Bronze Age and Iron Age settlements has been found around Linlithgow, in the form of Crannogs in Linlithgow Loch . Linlithgow gained its royal status as a burgh in 1388 under a charter from Robert II of Scotland . Linlithgow developed in the Middle Ages as a royal residence for Scottish Kings on the raised hill beside the Loch, as
10413-497: The original furnishings survived. The palace was the birthplace of James V and Mary, Queen of Scots , and has been described as Scotland's finest surviving late medieval secular building. In the courtyard of the Palace, an elaborately carved hexagonal fountain and well survives. Besides the palace, a second attraction, standing adjacent, is the primarily 15th century construction of St. Michael's Church . Its western tower originally had
10530-453: The other English variants and dialects spoken in Britain. From 1495, the term Scottis was increasingly used to refer to the Lowland vernacular and Erse , meaning "Irish", was used as a name for Gaelic. For example, towards the end of the fifteenth century, William Dunbar was using Erse to refer to Gaelic and, in the early sixteenth century, Gavin Douglas was using Scottis as
10647-497: The past (e.g. Corby or the former mining areas of Kent ). In the 2022 census conducted by the Scottish Government , it was found that 1,508,540 people reported that they could speak Scots, with 2,444,659 reporting that they could speak, read, write or understand Scots, approximately 45% of Scotland's 2022 population. Among the earliest Scots literature is John Barbour's Brus (fourteenth century), Wyntoun 's Cronykil and Blind Harry 's The Wallace (fifteenth century). From
10764-564: The perceived quality of its schooling and local amenities. The town grew considerably during the 1990s with the completion of several housing developments on the east side of the town. Development in the town is carefully controlled, as it is now bounded by green belt to the south and east, the M9 to the north, the river Avon and county boundary to the West. Following the formation of the Territorial Force
10881-455: The place. Linlithgow, in Erst [Gaelic], is thus explained: Lin signifies Lough; Lith, black; and Gow, a hound." A more recently recorded legend relates that the bitch was a black greyhound whose master was sentenced to starve to death on an island in the loch. She used to swim from the town every day with food for him. When this was discovered she was chained to a tree on a different island to suffer
10998-470: The railway in 1842. Linlithgow was the former county town of the county but the Council now resides in nearby Livingston . Today Linlithgow has less industry and the economy of the town centre is focused on hospitality, heritage and tourism services. 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
11115-413: The remainder had some degree of skill, such as understanding Scots (0.27 million, 5.2%) or being able to speak it but not read or write it (0.18 million, 3.5%). There were also small numbers of Scots speakers recorded in England and Wales on the 2011 Census, with the largest numbers being either in bordering areas (e.g. Carlisle ) or in areas that had recruited large numbers of Scottish workers in
11232-422: The same fate as her master. The townspeople took the animal's loyalty and bravery as symbolic of their own. Linlithgow's rich history and central location make it a popular tourist destination, while many local people commute to Glasgow, Edinburgh or Stirling; this is made relatively easy by the town's railway station and its proximity to both the M8 and M9 motorways. The town is served by three supermarkets and
11349-515: The seventeenth century, anglicisation increased. At the time, many of the oral ballads from the borders and the North East were written down. Writers of the period were Robert Sempill , Robert Sempill the younger , Francis Sempill , Lady Wardlaw and Lady Grizel Baillie . In the eighteenth century, writers such as Allan Ramsay , Robert Burns , James Orr , Robert Fergusson and Walter Scott continued to use Scots – Burns's " Auld Lang Syne "
11466-408: The site was a logical stop between Edinburgh to the east and Stirling to the West. Linlithgow Palace remains the chief historic attraction of the town. The present palace was started (on an older site) in 1424 by James I of Scotland . It was attacked by Oliver Cromwell in 1650 and later burnt in 1746, and, whilst unroofed, it is still largely complete in terms of its apartments, though very few of
11583-450: The surrounding agriculture. From the 17th until the late 19th century, the two largest industries in Linlithgow were leathermaking and shoemaking. In 1847, a pharmacist in the town, David Waldie is credited as being the first to produce a sample of chloroform for medical use, presenting it to James Young Simpson who later tested it and had it produced again on his return to Edinburgh, popularising its use as an anesthetic in medicine. In
11700-525: The thirteenth century. The succeeding variety of Northern Early Middle English spoken in southeastern Scotland is also known as Early Scots . It began to further diverge from the Middle English of Northumbria due to twelfth- and thirteenth-century immigration of Scandinavian-influenced Middle English–speakers from the North and Midlands of England . Later influences on the development of Scots came from
11817-573: The town was allocated, for recruiting, to the Lothians and Border Horse and 10th Battalion, Royal Scots . Today 1 SCOTS recruit from the area keeping the traditions of the area from the Royal Scots. 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
11934-476: The town was represented by Mary Mulligan of Labour. It is also part of the Lothian electoral region , which elected 3 Conservative , 2 Labour and 2 Green MSPs under the additional member system in 2016 . At the county level, Linlithgow is represented locally under West Lothian Council . In both the 2012 and 2017 local elections, Linlithgow ward elected one Conservative, one Labour and one SNP councillor. In
12051-618: The town where each of these can be crossed. To the west, Linlithgow Bridge used to be a somewhat distinct village with its own identity, but in the latter half of the 20th century it was enveloped in the expansion of the main town. Today the distinction between them is hard to make out. In the Parliament of the United Kingdom at Westminster, Linlithgow has been represented as part of the Bathgate and Linlithgow constituency since 2024. Linlithgow
12168-807: The twentieth-century biographer of James Boswell (1740–1795), described James's view of the use of Scots by his father Alexander Boswell (1706–1782) in the eighteenth century while serving as a judge of the Supreme Courts of Scotland : He scorned modern literature, spoke broad Scots from the bench, and even in writing took no pains to avoid the Scotticisms which most of his colleagues were coming to regard as vulgar. However, others did scorn Scots, such as Scottish Enlightenment intellectuals David Hume and Adam Smith , who went to great lengths to get rid of every Scotticism from their writings. Following such examples, many well-off Scots took to learning English through
12285-646: The varieties of Scots are dialects of Scottish English or constitute a separate language in their own right. The UK government now accepts Scots as a regional language and has recognised it as such under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages . Notwithstanding the UK government's and the Scottish Executive's obligations under part II of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages,
12402-467: 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. By 1799, Linlithgow was described as a large town with about 2300 inhabitants, whose primary industries included the tanning of leather , refining cotton cloth, the making of Tambour lace and Stockings , and shoemaking , as well as acting as a market town for
12519-413: The writer Frank Arneil Walker he may have been responsible for the remodelling of Johnstone Castle , Renfrewshire. He designed and built a house at 34 Albany Street in Edinburgh's New Town for himself and his wife and lived there from 1817 to 1833. He died in Edinburgh on 21 March 1855 after a four-year illness. He is buried in the sealed south-west section of Greyfriars Kirkyard generally called
12636-403: Was Provost of Linlithgow from 1802 to 1807. The key feature of the gardens is a 16th-century beehive type doocot that was originally part of the tail of a run rig from the house of Baron Ross of Halkhead on the High Street (the rig was split when the railway was created in 1842). The doocot has 370 nest boxes in 18 tiers and a lantern on the top although access inside is closed. Rosemount Park
12753-477: Was a "quite modern mistake". During the first half of the twentieth century, knowledge of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century literary norms waned, and as of 2006 , there is no institutionalised standard literary form. By the 1940s, the Scottish Education Department 's language policy was that Scots had no value: "it is not the language of 'educated' people anywhere, and could not be described as
12870-642: Was a safe Labour seat until the 2015 when sitting MP Michael Connarty was defeated by Martyn Day of the SNP. Day remained the MP until the 2024 election where he was defeated by Kirsteen Sullivan of Labour Co-op . In the Scottish Parliament , Linlithgow is represented by the SNP's Fiona Hyslop , the Cabinet Secretary for Culture, Tourism and External Affairs . Prior to the 2011 Scottish Parliament election ,
12987-530: Was and still remains controversial, especially as the style contrasts starkly with the character of other buildings in the town and significantly altered the street layout. After many decades of discussion, the partial demolition and redevelopment of the Vennel area was agreed by West Lothian Council, subject to consultation, which began in 2021. The town has continued to grow, not only because of its transport links with Edinburgh, Glasgow and Stirling, but also because of
13104-644: Was assassinated by James Hamilton of Bothwellhaugh , a supporter of Queen Mary. As Moray was passing in a cavalcade in the main street below, Hamilton fatally wounded him with a carbine shot from a window of his uncle Archbishop Hamilton's house. Many historic buildings line the High Street that follows the original route from the East (High and Low Ports) and West (Ports) Gates . On the south side, ground levels rise and several historic wynds and closes, as found in Edinburgh , still exist. The most prominent historical space
13221-659: Was heavily influenced by the work of Augustus Pugin . However, he also worked successfully in the neoclassical style as exemplified in his design of Blythswood House at Renfrew seven miles down the River Clyde from Glasgow . Graham designed principally country houses and churches . He is also well known for his interior design , his most noted work in this respect being that at Taymouth Castle and Hopetoun House . Some of his principal churches include St Andrew's Cathedral in Glasgow, and St Mary's Roman Catholic Cathedral and
13338-652: Was increasingly influenced by the developing Standard English of Southern England due to developments in royal and political interactions with England. When William Flower , an English herald , spoke with Mary of Guise and her councillors in 1560, they first used the "Scottyshe toung" . As he found this hard to understand, they switched into her native French. King James VI , who in 1603 became James I of England , observed in his work Some Reulis and Cautelis to Be Observit and Eschewit in Scottis Poesie that "For albeit sindrie hes written of it in English, quhilk
13455-466: Was not enough linguistic self-awareness amongst the Scottish populace, with people still thinking of themselves as speaking badly pronounced, grammatically inferior English rather than Scots, for an accurate census to be taken. The GRO research concluded that "[a] more precise estimate of genuine Scots language ability would require a more in-depth interview survey and may involve asking various questions about
13572-432: Was the notion of "Scottishness" itself. Many leading Scots of the period, such as David Hume , defined themselves as Northern British rather than Scottish. They attempted to rid themselves of their Scots in a bid to establish standard English as the official language of the newly formed union. Nevertheless, Scots was still spoken across a wide range of domains until the end of the eighteenth century. Frederick Pottle ,
13689-491: Was translated into Scots by Rab Wilson and published in 2004. Alexander Hutchison has translated the poetry of Catullus into Scots, and in the 1980s, Liz Lochhead produced a Scots translation of Tartuffe by Molière . J. K. Annand translated poetry and fiction from German and Medieval Latin into Scots. The strip cartoons Oor Wullie and The Broons in the Sunday Post use some Scots. In 2018, Harry Potter and
#561438