Кірклістон: Шотландияның тарихи ауылы мен шіркеуі

Kirkliston is a village and parish to the west of Edinburgh, Scotland, historically within the county of West Lothian but now within the City of Edinburgh council area limits. It lies on high ground immediately north of a northward loop of the Almond, on the old road between Edinburgh and Linlithgow (the B9080, now cut off by Edinburgh Airport), having a crossroads with the road from Newbridge to Queensferry and beyond to Fife (the B800). The B800 is variously named Path Brae, High Street, Station Road, and Queensferry Road as it passes through the town. The B9080 is named Main Street and Stirling Road as it passes through.

The oldest surviving building in Kirkliston is the kirk for which the town is named. Its elevated position raises it to a position of great prominence in the local topography. The mound it sits upon is partly natural and partly a burial mound upon which the church has been superimposed. The church's "Norman Transitional" architecture indicates that it was built around 1200. It was dedicated on 11 September 1244 by David de Bernham, Bishop of St Andrews, but the patron saint is not recorded. It may be one of the saints commemorated in the names of two ancient local fairs, St Symon & St Jude's and St Margaret's. These were discontinued in the 19th century, but there is now an annual "gala day", a festival in which a local girl is crowned as the "gala queen". At one time the church belonged to the Knights Templar and the town was called Temple Liston. The south doorway is the most significant part of the building, being an excellent example of a Romanesque style arched entrance, typical of the late 12th century, with multiple concentric geometric and sculpted forms in each curve. It was bricked up in the 1822 remodelling carried out by Sir Robert Rowand Anderson, and the old north doorway, more restrained in design, was moved to the eastern wall to become the main entrance. The projecting wing on the church's southeast, the Stair Aisle, in which the lairds of Newliston and their families are interred, was added in the early 17th century. A lintel above its door bears the Latin for "it is proper to trust in virtue, not in lineage" with the date 1629 and the initials of John Dundas of Newliston and his wife Margaret Crichton. The church contains a copy of the 1643 Solemn League and Covenant, signed by the minister, the session clerk (John Brooke), and 310 parishioners. It is displayed on the east wall of the nave. A curious gravestone features two carved heads wearing spectacles; its date of 1727 possible makes it the world's oldest depiction of glasses with sides. The original graveyard lies largely to the south of the church, but was extended as a more formal cemetery on sloping ground to the west. Unusually for towns, the much later Kirkliston Cemetery (begun in 1928) has squeezed into a site northeast of the church on the site of the former manse and garden, rather than lying on the outskirts. Two of the graves are of the Earl of Stair and his grandmother, Dame Margaret on whom Lady Ashton was based in one of Sir Walter Scott's Waverly Novels "The Bride of the Lammermuirs." recognises that boundary changes to include parts of Main Street would help to preserve the townscape. It focuses on the Parish Church, The Square and the High Street but also stretches south down to encompass the remote manse and the little group of buildings at Breastmill (1672). Its boundary splits the now largely demolished distillery site and it is recognised that inclusion of the entire site would help to control redevelopment. The boundary encompasses the River Almond as it passes the town leading to the net area of the conservation area being primarily open space rather than buildings.

Locally Kirkliston is often known as "Cheesetown", a name first recorded in print in 1902. A suggested origin is the Burns verse given above, but the most widely used explanation is that when the Forth Bridge was being built, the workers who lodged in Kirkliston often had cheese sandwiches for lunch. The town is also often called "Kirky".

Although a major motorway interchange (M9 J1A / M90 south termination) is situated immediately to the west of Kirkliston and named after the town, there is no direct access onto the network at that location – the nearest is the M9 J1 at Newbridge approximately to the south via the B800.

Until 1930, Kirkliston had its own railway station, built by the North British Railway. The station was located on a branch line from "Queensferry Junction" (near Ratho on the Edinburgh Glasgow main line) to Dalmeny, which was opened in 1866. The line was extended from Dalmeny to Queensferry and Port Edgar a few years later. Kirkliston Station was closed to passengers by the London and North Eastern Railway in 1930. Freight trains through Kirkliston ended in 1966 following the Beeching cuts, and the railway track was subsequently removed. There are still references to the station in the name of two streets. The old railway line has been converted into a cycle path.

Kirkliston is served by McGill's Scotland East's X38 bus which runs from Edinburgh to Falkirk. In June 2014, Lothian Buses introduced the 63 bus which runs from Heriot Watt via the Gyle, Newbridge, Kirkliston, and onwards to Queensferry. In September 2020, the route was transferred to First, extending the route to Balerno. In 2022 this route was transferred to McGill's along with service X38. In November 2019 Lothian Buses introduced the X38 service running from Linlithgow to town. The Lothian X38 was withdrawn in early 2020 due to the COVID 19 pandemic and later permanently withdrawn leaving Kirkliston out of the Lothian network. In October 2023 Lothian Country introduced Service 72 operating between Kirkliston and Livingston Centre Via Winchburgh, Broxburn, Uphall & St John's Hospital. Stagecoach East Scotland's Service X51 calls at Kirkliston operating between Dunfermline Bus Station and Livingston Centre via Rosyth, Ferrytoll Park & Ride and the Livingston Fastlink.