Linlithgow Floral Trails

6. Hanging Baskets* – Notice the 122 hanging baskets which adorn poles and lampposts throughout the town centre. For summer, these mostly contain trailing begonias, or a mix of trailing petunias and trailing begonias, along with nepeta, white bacopa and big central begonias.

7. Regent Centre* – Cross the road at the traffic island. Continuing ahead, note the beds of shrubs and herbaceous plants (and a few annuals) in the grass area by the roundabout. Featuring a multi-stemmed birch tree, this was one of Burgh Beautiful’s first displays. In 2020-21, the beds were completely refurbished with new planting. The windows of the office building on the right display six beautiful mosaics on the topic of climate change, produced by the pupils of all the local primary schools, as part of a project coordinated by Burgh Beautiful.

8. Provost Road Beds* – Along Blackness Road, on either side of the junction with Provost Road, are two contrasting beds – one with mainly bright-coloured bedding to provide impact for those entering the town and the other a striking bed of winter heathers.

9. Low Port Beds* – Retrace your steps to the pelican crossing and cross to see the Low Port flower beds. Those in front of the entrance to Low Port Primary School provide an attractive mix of permanent and annual planting. The centrepiece of the larger bed is a statue of St Michael by sculptor Alan Herriot, the second of two based on the town’s coats of arms, provided by Linlithgow Burgh Trust in 2019-20. The other related sculpture will be seen later in the trail.

The bed to the left, at the entrance to the Low Port Centre, contains a mix of annuals with more of a golden theme in celebration of Linlithgow’s success in winning ‘Gold’ and ‘Town’ category trophies over the years in the Beautiful Scotland competition and in the Britain in Bloom UK finals. All these major flower beds in this area are sponsored by the Rotary Club of Linlithgow & Bo’ness. Completing the scene are two birch trees, three tubs containing seasonal planting and permanent borders.

10. High Street and Cross Planters* – Continuing westwards along the High Street to The Cross and beyond, note the large number of floral planters, generally containing a central conifer and a profusion of trailing and bushy annuals.

11 Phone Box Planter* – Some distance beyond The Cross, after a large floral planter, is a former telephone box, ingeniously and skilfully converted into a floral planter in 2022 by the Ex-Tinguishers, a very active group of former firefighters.

12. ‘COP27’ and ‘Cycling’ Bed* – Just beyond the phone box planters are some barrels, tended by Farmily and the Linlithgow Young People Project to demonstrate the cultivation of vegetables and herbs. Beyond that is a large rectangular flower bed devoted to the promotion of environmental issues; over winter and spring, it is dedicated to the COP27 United Nations conference on climate change, while the brightly-coloured summer 2023 display will advocate the benefits of cycling*. Continue westwards.

13. Serpentine Bed* – Just before the High Street narrows, turn right to view the ‘serpentine bed’. Replacing standard sized and shaped flowerbeds, this spectacular sinuous bed, which continues across a path and then jumps down over a stone retaining wall, is now a popular and distinctive feature of the town. The ‘zig-zag’ planting scheme, consisting of two types of begonia and some insect-friendly blue salvia, has replaced a previous simpler colour scheme but has just as big an impact.

Before walking down past the bed, don’t forget to have a look at the new ‘Black Bitch’ statue, created by David Annand, unveiled in December 2019 and the first of the two portraying Linlithgow’s traditional civic insignia, provided by Linlithgow Burgh Trust.