They’re the most visible remnants of Scotland’s once-mighty shale oil industry.
But the vast red piles of spent ash waste from post-mining industrial processes – also known as ‘shale bings’ – surrounding the villages of Winchburgh, Broxburn and Addiewell are also very different ecologically from the rest of the nearby land.
Avenues of hawthorn trees now grow along the length of the hills’ pathways and a range of rare plants have sprung up all around.
Botanist Barbra Harvie, who studied the bings for Edinburgh University’s School of Geosciences, explained the source of these surprising differences...
