The Lothians
The Lothians is the collective name for the counties of Midlothian, East Lothian and West Lothian, plus Edinburgh city, in the Central Belt of Scotland.| Tap on a place to explore it |
Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Essential Destinations
Top destinations include Edinburgh and Old Town.
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland, located in the Central Belt of the country. With a population of 526,470 in the urban area in 2021, and 901,455 in the metropolitans, Edinburgh fizzes with a cosmopolitan yet uniquely Scottish atmosphere.
Old Town
Photo: PerryPlanet, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Old Town is the original settlement of Edinburgh. At its core is the Royal Mile, the long street descending east from Castle Crag to Holyrood Palace. This medieval city was cramped for space so it built higher and higher, and stank higher still, hence its nickname of "Auld Reekie".
New Town
Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0.
New Town of Edinburgh is 250 years old, in contrast to the Old Town settled for over a thousand years. It was laid out on a grid pattern in the late 18th century with elegant Georgian townhouses, and the intervening loch was drained to become Princes Street Gardens.
Destinations to Discover
Explore places such as Livingston and Dunbar.
Livingston
Photo: Wikimedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Livingston is a large town in West Lothian in the central belt of Scotland, built as a "New Town" from 1963. In 2022 it had a population of 55,800.
Dunbar
Photo: Nachosan, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Dunbar is a harbour town in East Lothian, on the south-east coast of central Scotland. In 2021 its population was 10,400.
Musselburgh
Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Musselburgh is the largest town in East Lothian in central Scotland, six miles east of Edinburgh city centre. It's an old fishing port which is now part of the commuter belt, with a population in 2020 of 21,100.
Linlithgow
Photo: Xenophule, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Linlithgow is a small town in The Lothians in central lowland Scotland, 20 miles west of Edinburgh. It's a commuter town for the city, with a population in 2020 of 12,840.
Dalkeith
Photo: Kim Traynor, CC BY 3.0.
Dalkeith is a town in Midlothian, six miles southeast of Edinburgh in the Central Belt of Scotland. It's a commuter town for the city and had a population of 13,400 in 2016.
Haddington
Photo: Achromatic, CC BY 3.0.
Haddington is a market town in East Lothian, 15 miles east of Edinburgh in central Scotland. It's the administrative centre of East Lothian council area, with a population of 10,360 in 2020.
North Berwick
Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0.
North Berwick is a town on the coast of East Lothian in central Scotland, with a population of 7840 in 2020. It's an attractive fishing port and beach resort, nowadays a commuter town for Edinburgh 20 miles west.
Bo’ness
Photo: LordHarris, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Bo'ness is an industrial town in West Lothian in central Scotland, with a population of 15,400 in 2022. The main reason to visit is to ride the Bo'ness and Kinneil steam railway.
South Queensferry
Photo: Tony Hisgett, CC BY 2.0.
South Queensferry is a town on the south bank of the Firth of Forth in West Lothian, 10 miles west of Edinburgh. Historically it was the ferry port for crossing to Fife, then in modern times it acquired three bridges.
Penicuik
Photo: YOGAN, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Penicuik is in a town in The Lothians 10 miles south of Edinburgh. It's mostly commuterland for the city, with a population of 16,200 in 2016. It has an army base and is close to the scenic Pentland Hills.
Gullane
Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0.
Gullane is a seaside village in East Lothian, in central Scotland. It's surrounded by golf courses, notably Muirfield, a regular venue for the Open Championship. It's also a commuter town for Edinburgh and in 2020 had a population of 2810.
Tranent
Photo: marsupium photography, CC BY-SA 2.0.
Tranent is the largest of a string of villages in East Lothian in central Scotland, 9 miles east of Edinburgh city centre. In 2022 it had a population of 20,700.
The Lothians
- Type: Area with 858,000 residents
- Description: former local government region of Scotland
- Also known as: “Lothian” and “Lothian Region”
- Category: Scottish region
- Location: Central Belt, Scotland, United Kingdom, Britain and Ireland, Europe
- View on OpenStreetMap
This page is based on GeoNames, Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, and Wikivoyage.
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Satellite Map
Discover The Lothians from above in high-definition satellite imagery.
In Other Languages
From Arabic to Welsh—“The Lothians” goes by many names.
- Arabic: “لوثيان”
- Armenian: “Լոթիան”
- Belarusian: “Лотыян”
- Breton: “Lothian”
- Catalan: “Lothian”
- Chinese: “洛錫安”
- Chinese: “洛锡安行政区”
- Czech: “Lothian”
- Dutch: “Lothian”
- Esperanto: “Lothian”
- Finnish: “Lothian”
- French: “Lothian”
- German: “Lothian”
- Italian: “Lothian”
- Japanese: “ロージアン”
- Kazakh: “Лотиан”
- Korean: “로디언주”
- Lithuanian: “Lodianas”
- Northern Frisian: “Lothian”
- Norwegian Bokmål: “Lothian”
- Norwegian: “Lothian”
- Polish: “Lothian”
- Portuguese: “Lothian”
- Russian: “Лотиан”
- Scots: “Lowden”
- Scottish Gaelic: “Roinn Lodainn”
- Serbian: “Лотијан”
- Serbo-Croatian: “Lothian”
- Slovak: “Lothian”
- Slovenian: “Lothian”
- Spanish: “Lothian”
- Swedish: “Lothian”
- Turkish: “Lothian”
- Ukrainian: “Лотіан”
- Welsh: “Lothian”
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Delve into Glasgow, Stirling, Greenock, and Paisley.
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Discover places selected for their distinct character and enduring appeal.
About Mapcarta. Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license, except for photos, directions, and the map. Description text is based on the Wikivoyage page “The Lothians”. Photo: AlasdairW, CC BY-SA 3.0.