Map - West Lothian (West Lothian)

West Lothian (Wast Lowden; Lodainn an Iar) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland, and was one of its historic counties. The county was called Linlithgowshire until 1925. The historic county was bounded geographically by the Avon to the west and the Almond to the east. The modern council area occupies a larger area than the historic county. It was reshaped following local government reforms in 1975: some areas in the west were transferred to Falkirk; some areas in the east were transferred to Edinburgh; and some areas that had formerly been part of in Midlothian were added to West Lothian.

West Lothian lies on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth and is predominantly rural, though there were extensive coal, iron, and shale oil mining operations in the 19th and 20th centuries. These created distinctive red-spoil heaps (locally known as "bings") throughout the council area. The old county town was the royal burgh of Linlithgow, but the largest town (and the second largest town in the Lothian region after Edinburgh) is now Livingston. Other large towns in the county include Bathgate (a town with medieval origins that developed extensively during the industrial revolution) and the historic mining settlements of Armadale, Fauldhouse, Whitburn, West Calder, Uphall, and Broxburn.

The modern council area borders, in a clockwise direction, the council areas of Edinburgh, the Scottish Borders, North and South Lanarkshire, and Falkirk. The traditional county bordered Midlothian to the south-east, Lanarkshire to the south-west and Stirlingshire to the west. Its border with Midlothian was formed by the Briech Water, from its source until it reached the Almond, and it then followed the Almond to the Firth of Forth (except by Livingston, where Midlothian intruded about a mile past the Almond to include the hamlets of Howden, Craigshill, and Pumpherston). The western border was formed first by the Drumtassie Burn and then by the Avon. It had an area of 120 sq. miles (310 km2), making it the third smallest of Scotland's 33 counties and smaller than the modern council area.

The geology of West Lothian is typical for the Midland valley area geological of Scotland. Most of the bedrock surface area is underlaid by Carboniferous sedimentary rocks running in strips from north to south, with a variety of glacial deposits. The exception is the Bathgate Hills, which are composed of volcanic rocks to the north of Bathgate and around Linlithgow. Other rock types include oil shale, sandstone, dolerite. The eastern and southern rocks are the oldest, specifically Devonian sandstones and volcanic rocks in the Pentland Hills. In the middle of the county there is a large field of shale oil running south to north (underneath the settlements of Broxburn, Livingston and West Calder), then sedimentary and basalt rocks, which supply silica sand. In the far west of the county, a large carboniferous coalfield exists; it extends underneath Whitburn, Blackridge and Harthill. The oil shale in West Lothian is an organic-rich, fine-grained sedimentary rock containing kerogen (a solid mixture of organic chemical compounds) from which liquid hydrocarbons can be extracted. This extraction was carried out extensively in the region in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, by a process developed by the chemist James Young.

The area rises from lowlands in the north to the Pentland Hills in the southeast, while the southwest is moorland. West Cairn Hill is the highest peak and Current County Top (CoU) at 562 m (1,844 ft). The previous County Top was Cairnpapple Hill which is now the Historical County Top (CoH). Two thirds of the land is agricultural, while a tenth is urban. Significant watercourses include the Almond and the Union Canal, while the main bodies of water are Linlithgow Loch, Dundas Loch, Humbie Reservoir, Lochcote Reservoir, Beecraigs Loch and Bangour Reservoir. The small island of Inchgarvie near the Forth Bridge lies within the historic borders of the county.