2025-02-24 55 -3

Mon 24 Feb 2025 in 55,-3: 55.8709920, -3.4935529 geohashing.info google osm bing/os kml crox

Location

An access path to A powerline right-of-way near the Linhouse Circuit cycle trail, Livingston, Scotland.

Participants

• Mcbaneg (talk) 22:27, 23 February 2025 (UTC)
• KerrMcF

Plans

Mcbaneg

Bus from work to Haymarket station, Scotrail to Livingston South station, walk. Should arrive around 630 pm.

KerrMcF

I'll likely be getting the bus or train into Glasgow, followed by a train to Livingston South. I'm aiming to arrive at around 6:30pm to meet with Mcbaneg. The journey should take 2 hours in one direction. I may stop for food after reaching the geohash/on the way back home.

Expedition

Mcbaneg

I arrived around 6:15, a little earlier than planned. It was getting dark pretty fast as I approached the hashpoint. It was just off the path, in an area where a bunch of trees had recently fallen, probably because of high winds a couple of weeks ago. Most of the worst deadfalls had already been cleared and my route to the hashpoint was unobstructed. Right in the target area I was able to hashdance around the slash and debris without a flashlight but with caution. GPS reception wasn't great because of the tree cover but I managed to get within 1 m.

I then waited a few minutes for Kerr to show up. Right on time, I saw a pinpoint of light with bluejeans underneath it walkng toward the hashpoint, coming from the opposite direction than the route I had used. Eventually the pinpoint turned into Kerr. We had a brief chat at the point, but it was starting to rain and quite dark, so we moved off back toward town. He reported that the shorter route he had used had some muddy places and an inconvenient deadfall across the path, so we retraced my route rather than his.

We both had about 45 minutes before our opposite-direction return trains home. We stopped in at a little takeout place and bought some food that we then ate in the trackside shelter at the station. During our time there he pointed out that we had not only earned a Meetup achievement (my first, on my 137th expedition) but also a Tale of Two Hashes for Livingston. Thanks, Pedalpusher!

KerrMcF

I left the house at around 4:25pm to head to the train station. I had booked tickets online for the journey, and ScotRail had told me that if I bought a return ticket from Hillfoot to Livingston South, it would cost £32, but if I split the tickets into returns for Hillfoot -> Shotts and Shotts -> Livingston South, it would only cost £16.10. Why is this a thing? Why does it cost me 50% less to add a "stop" to my journey? Don't get me wrong, I'm grateful that they pointed this out to me, but why isn't the Hillfoot -> Livingston South return just £16.10 to begin with? Anyway, with my split tickets, I got onto my first train at 4:39pm and got off four stops later at Hyndland (4:50pm). I then waited for 3 minutes before taking my second train to the end point of Glasgow Central (5:02pm). With a 15 minute change-over, I got onto my third train to Livingston South, which arrived at 6:12pm.

As I had been approaching Livingston, the weather had been gradually getting worse and worse, but the rain still looked manageable. Almost immediately after I got off of the train, it began to pour. The route to the geohash had seemed simple when researching the area; I would just follow a path pretty much directly there. What I did not know was that the "path" was actually a very rough idea of a trail through a dense woodland area with multiple fallen and uprooted trees. This was not ideal in the weather and light level, especially considering the tree at roughly chest level directly across the path. I have no idea how recent the damage was, as I'm unaware of any recent storms other than that big one from a month ago (although, that is partially because I was out of the country. See here and here). Eventually, using my phone's torchlight and frequently checking the map for the general direction, I made it towards the geohash.

I couldn't see far ahead of me, and couldn't see any light around where I had assumed the geohash would be, so I thought that George was perhaps running later than expected. Then I heard a shout, I think, I'm still not sure. [G: yes, I said "Good evening" when you were still a few dozen meters away, but it was a narrow path in a damp forest so I'm not surprised it didn't carry well.] A figure in the distance began to come more and more into focus as I approached, which I soon realised was George. We spoke for a bit, I took a screenshot of proof and attempted to take a photo of the two of us, and we soon began to head back in the direction of the station. As George mentioned, we discussed the differences in our paths and, although longer, his was definitely the better option for the return journey.

After briefly looking for somewhere to eat, we headed into a local takeaway and bought food to eat at the station. We had a nice chat for about 30 minutes or so, primarily about geohashing (it felt so nice to be able to talk to someone who knew what I was talking about) before I had to cross under the station to wait for my train. This arrived at 7:17pm and took me to Glasgow Central for 8:13pm. As I was on the train, I decided I should charge my phone with the powerbank I had brought with me. It was running low, and I would need it for my ticket. Small oversight, the powerbank was empty. With this knowledge and the growing fear that my final 10% would run out before I got to the ticket gate, I began to prepare for my onward journey. I realised that there was a 30 minute change-over in the station, and I knew that I could get a bus home for free in that length of time. Additionally, the bus would potentially have USB ports, so I would be able to charge my phone on the way home. However, the bus was due to leave at 8:15pm, which was not a large enough gap for me to make should the train arrive on time.

The train arrived 10 minutes early, and the bus arrived 5 minutes late, so I actually had plenty of time. The bus did have USB ports, so I was able to stop stressing over that. I made it home relatively quickly due to the quiet roads, resulting in a total expedition length of around 4.5 hours. The expedition gained me another meet-up, connected two groups of the meet-up graph (the requirement for the proposed Networking achievement), and a few advances in my regional-style achievements.

Photos

Mcbaneg

• 

  Grin (damp).

• 

  Proof.

• 

  View west from hashpoint, much enhanced by Night Sight (it was really pretty dark). A couple of minutes later Kerr walked down this path to the point.

• 

  Successful geohashers, waiting for trains.

KerrMcF

• 

  Reached the geohash

• 

  Me and George at the (very dark) geohash

• 

  The route I walked

Achievements

Mcbaneg

Mcbaneg earned the Meet-up achievement by meeting KerrMcF at the (55, -3) geohash on 2025-02-24.

Mcbaneg earned the Tale of Two Hashes achievement by meeting the challenge by Pedalpusher to geohash in Livingstone going to the (55, -3) geohash on 2025-02-24.

George earned the Public transport geohash achievement by reaching the (55, -3) geohash on 2025-02-24 via Lothian route 25 and Scotrail.

George earned the Earliest geohasher achievement by arriving first at the (55, -3) geohash on 2025-02-24.

KerrMcF

KerrMcF earned the Land geohash achievement by reaching the (55, -3) geohash on 2025-02-24.

KerrMcF earned the Public transport geohash achievement by reaching the (55, -3) geohash on 2025-02-24 using public transit.

KerrMcF earned the Meet-up achievement by meeting Mcbaneg at the (55, -3) geohash on 2025-02-24.

KerrMcF earned the Tale of Two Hashes achievement by meeting the challenge by Pedalpusher to geohash in Livingston going to the (55, -3) geohash on 2025-02-24.

History of the Location

The oldest map I could find for this area was dated to 1852. It states that the land belonged to the farm of Nether Williamston and, based on the map details, there was a routeway of sorts between two different farms roughly along the route of the current power line pathway. There is no clear indication of any group of trees in the area, suggesting that the woodlands are more recent than the farm. By 1893, the area is still under the name of Nether Williamston, but the path between farms appears to have vanished. There are no other noticeable changes, and this will continue until 1962, which was the date of the newest map I could access in the database. Satellite imagery suggests that by 1985, the land had changed to that of a residential area, with Murieston Gardens now having been built. It is also possible to see the current woodland area on the imagery. This remains the usage of the general area consistently until the present day, suggesting that, other than the addition of power lines, not much changed in this time. Overall, the land appears to have been historically used as farmland until some point between 1962 and 1985, when housing was built in the area and the geohash itself became part of a public pathway.

Progress

Council Area	Postcode	NUTS	Centicule
West Lothian	EH(54)	UKM78	84

Expedition Navigation
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