Fauldhouse is a large village found close to the extreme south western tip of West Lothian. The village has an upland setting and just to its west, between Fauldhouse and Shotts, is the watershed between waters draining west towards the Firth of Clyde and those destined for the Firth of Forth. For somewhere standing in almost the exact centre of Scotland's central belt, Fauldhouse has a surprising
ly remote feel. Access from the A71, less than a mile to the south, is indirect, and while the M8 motorway is less than three miles to the north, when it was built in the late 1960s the locations of the junctions were not planned with access to Fauldhouse in mind. The village is, however, served by the railway line that links Glasgow and Edinburgh via Shotts. The name of Fauldhouse comes from "house on the fallow land", perhaps a reference to the upland location. There appears to have been a farmstead here in the middle ages on which dairy cattle were grazed: it is recorded as supplying butter and cheese to its owners, the Knights Hospitaller of the Order of St John of Jerusalem based at Torphichen Preceptory. In the 1600s the small settlement here was labelled at "Falas" on a map, and this appears to have been an alternative name (or, perhaps, a phonetic rendering of the way visitors heard the name being said) until the establishment of a post office in the mid 1800s fixed the spelling of the name as Fauldhouse. Fauldhouse is known since the Middle Ages, and was known until the 19th century by the names "Falas" or latterly "Fallas." The seventeenth century Dutch mapmaker Willem Blaeu features Fauldhouse as "Falas" on two maps in his Atlas Novus of Scotland. The name Fallas or Fauldhouse has been translated as "house on the fold", "house in the field", or "house on unploughed (fallow) land". However, the name may be older than the Middle Ages and might even be derived from the Brythonic or Welsh-type language once spoken in the Lothian region. To the south of Fauldhouse is the 18 hole Greenburn Golf Club which was founded in 1892, but which has been on its present site for around 50 years. The village also has two primary schools, Falla Hill and St John the Baptist RC, which have both been expanding over recent years. Here we will have photo's of people, places and events from Fauldhouse today
