Geograph - photograph every grid square

West Lothian Alps

Enormous shale bing, a by product of an oil shale mine at NT087731. The industry was largely associated with a pioneer industrialist James "paraffin" Young, and flourished in the days before Texas and Oklahoma struck it rich. This was Scotland's first oil boom.
The bings have been since quarried for roadstone, but some survive and are of great interest biologically, as they are like newborn volcanic islands. The once sterile baked rock piles have been colonised by plants and animals, giving a lab for ecologists. Many look upon mine waste as an ugly blot on the landscape, but the West Lothian bings are very much loved parts of the landscape. For an aerial view see NT0873 : Greendykes Bing from the air.