Five Sisters Shale Bing SE of Mid Breich Livingston, West Lothian, Scotland, UK
Scheduled Monument Statement of Significance
© Crown Copyright text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland, reprinted under the Open Government License.
The monument is of national importance as the most widely-known reminder of the important pioneering oil industry based on the mining of the West Lothian shales. This laid the foundations for the modern international petro-chemical industry. The bing, in addition to its value as a memorial and significany landscape feature, may contain evidence relating to mining and tipping procedures and types of equipment utilised. It is an element in the 'Paraffin Young' industrial heritage trail.
Scheduled Monument Description
© Crown Copyright text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland, reprinted under the Open Government License.
The monument consists of a substantial shale bing, the evidence of former extraction and processing of oil-shale.
The Five Sisters bing is the best-known example of a shale bing. It is of rather unusual form, with five distinct lobes formed by the method of tipping employed, and is a local landscape feature of some importance. The oil-shale was worked from a site immediately to the NE of the bing, but this has been redeveloped and is not included in
the scheduling.
The area to be scheduled is irregular on plan, consisting of the bing and its immediate boundary walls and fences, as marked in red on the accompanying map.
Scheduled Monument References
© Crown Copyright text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland, reprinted under the Open Government License.
RCAHMS records the monument as NT06SW 22.1.