LOTHIAN

region of southeastern Scotland; created by the administrative reorganization of 1975, with an area of 700 sq mi (1,813 sq km), it is the next most populous Scottish region after Strathclyde. The new region includes the districts of East Lothian, area 275 sq mi (712 sq km), the former county area; Midlothian, area 138 sq mi (357 sq km), and West Lothian, area 160 sq mi (414 sq km), created from parts of the former county areas, and a much extended city of Edinburgh district, with an area of 105 sq mi (272 sq km). Edinburgh is the seat of the regional authority. Much of the region lies along the eastern coast of the central rift valley of Scotland. Between the Lammermuir Hills to the south and the post-glacial raised beaches of the eastern coast and Firth of Forth to the east and north lie fertile deposits of glacial clays above rocks rich in coal seams. The Lothians, being thus well endowed for both agriculture and industry, have been an important area of Scotland from very early times. The fertile glacial soils of the coastal lowlands, together with low rainfall and long hours of sunshine, led to the concentration on arable farming. Barley, grown mainly for whisky distilling and beer brewing, is now the chief cash crop, but wheat, oats, seed potatoes, and fodder crops for winter fattening of livestock are all important. Farms are generally large, prosperous, and highly mechanized. The proximity of the large urban markets has encouraged dairy farming and market gardening, as well as increased production of pigs and poultry. Sheep farming prevails on the Lammermuir Hills inland. Industry in the Lothians was established by the 12th century, when salt was produced at Preston Pans. Coal seams were early exploited to provide fuel to evaporate the brine, and by the mid-17th century the small ports of Musselburgh, Cockenzie, and Port Seton were thriving outlets for the locally produced salt, coal, and grain. By the 19th century coal mining had reached the height of its prosperity in West Lothian and Midlothian, and oil was being produced from crushed oil shale at Pumpherston. This early oil industry declined in the 20th century. Coal mining has been nationalized and concentrated in a few large modern collieries, each exploiting vast underground areas in the East Lothian basin and producing at Monktonhall and Bilston Glen more than one million tons of coal per annum. Much of the coal from Monktonhall powers the electricity generating station at Cockenzie. Construction began in 1978 on a nuclear power station at Torness, also on the southern shore of the Firth of Forth. The recent decline of mining has prompted the establishment of light engineering and vehicle assembly plants such as that at Bathgate. Further expansion of light industry is taking place, particularly electronics, which now employs more workers in Scotland than either shipbuilding, coal mining, or the iron and steel industry. There is a notable concentration of electronics industry at Dalkeith. Edinburgh, the Scottish capital, together with its port of Leith, has dominated the area since medieval times as the principal commercial, market, and cultural centre. Surrounding small towns such as Penicuik, once a papermaking centre, now serve largely as dormitory suburbs for Edinburgh. Lothian region includes the new town of Livingston in West Lothian, designated in 1964 to provide a new focus for economic growth. It is now the largest town in Lothian region apart from Edinburgh. The historic burgh of Linlithgow (q.v.) is the seat of the district authority for West Lothian; Haddington for East Lothian; and Edinburgh for Midlothian. Pop. (1982 est.) 749,395. also called Lyonnesse, a primitive province of Scotland lying between the rivers Tweed and Forth. The name, of Welsh origin but uncertain meaning, is retained in the names of the modern Scottish districts of East and West Lothian and Midlothian and the region of Lothian, all established in 1975. Occupied in the 3rd and 4th centuries by a British tribe called by the Romans the Votadini, the area seems by the mid-7th century to have been conquered by the Angles settled in northern England. Kenneth I MacAlpin, first king of the Picts and of the Scots, made southward attacks in the mid-9th century, and from c. 975 Lothian was held by Scottish kings. King Edward III of England acquired it in 1333, and it was only gradually won back by the Scots, the border town of Berwick-upon-Tweed remaining, from 1482, in English hands.