The abbreviated name – Bo’ness – was first seen by Hector back in the 1970’s on the front of a bus leaving Dundas Street (Glasgow). Bound – somewhere east – is all that was ever known until the era of regular trips through to Musselburgh, when steam trains were spotted on the horizon to the north of Linlithgow. Eventually, in late November 2021, Bo’ness was visited, there was an invitation to visit Bo’ness Spice, it was therefore Curry, not Bier, which brought Hector east.
Borrowstounness, abbreviated as – Bo’ness – lies on the south bank of the Forth Estuary. Bo’ness is sited on a cuspate foreland, not the most common of coastal landforms. Cuspate forelands, known as – nesses – in Scots, are created by longshore drift, making this site all the more unusual being in a tidal estuary.
Bo’ness marks the eastern extremity of the Antonine Wall (142CE), remnants of which can be seen in the Kinneil Estate which also contains Kinneil House (1553) and museum.
On the eastern side of Bo’ness lies Bridgeness Tower (1750) constructed as a windmill, then converted to a house in 1895. The main road connecting Kinneil Estate to Bridgeness affords a hilltop view of the Forth Bridges.
A major port prior to the construction of the Forth & Clyde Canal, the harbour is disused. Adjacent to the harbour lies the railway, now a Heritage Railway after the savage Beeching Cuts of the 1960’s. Bo’ness Station is the site of the Museum of Scottish Railways, a Motor Museum is also located to the east of the town.
The Grangemouth oil refinery is upwind from Bo’ness, something which all visitors will become immediately aware of. There is a pong in the air, who knows what one is breathing in?
On the aforementioned visit, no pubs were passed, no Bier of note is known about in this town. Four barbers were spotted, none with customers, crammed into the town centre. What’s going on here?
A friend told me of his visits to the Hippodrome, Scotland’s oldest cinema, back in the days when Hector was looking at the fronts of buses. Bo’ness had two Italian cafes, both called – Serafunnij – related, but rivals. The ice cream of choice was a – Black Man. We in the west were always more politically correct, a – nougat! Marg and Hector did visit the surviving ice cream shop McMoo’s, which is certainly worth a visit unless one is a vegan/snowflake.
The venues visited to date:
Bo’ness Spice – 61-63 South St, Bo’ness EH51 9HA
McMoo’s Ice Cream Parlour – 13 Hope St., Bo’ness EH51 0AA
We’ll be back, to both!
