The Knock Indicator - West Lothian, Scotland.
Posted by: 
creg-ny-baa
N 55° 55.357 W 003° 37.011
30U E 461451 N 6197638
Bronze disc indicator on the top of The Knock, a little hill of volcanic extraction, north of the town of Bathgate in West Lothian, Scotland.
Waymark Code: WMZMG9
Location: Southern Scotland, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 12/01/2018
Views: 0
The Bathgate Hills are the name given to an area of rolling high ground between the towns of Linlithgow and Bathgate in West Lothian. The highest point of these is at 312 metres on Cairnpapple or Ballencrieff Hill two miles north of Bathgate. Only a few hundred yards to the east is the volcanic swelling of The Knock, which despite its prominence, is just a couple of metres in height lower, but does have an orientation table on its summit.
It was erected in 1936 in memory of the Sutherland family, who gifted four and a half acres of land in the area to Bathgate Town Council in that year. Designed by John Mathieson, it is a bronze disc on a stone cylinder taking in the view over much of central Scotland.
The summit can be reached in only a matter of a minute or so from a narrow minor road that runs up the hill northwards from Bathgate, skirting its western flank. A lay-by lies on the southern side, and a path climbs from here, passing a plaque on the way up which reads as follows:
'THE KNOCK
GIFTED TO BATHGATE
IN MEMORY OF
D.T. SUTHERLAND, PROVOST 1881-1893
Mrs ISABELLA DAWSON or SUTHERLAND
AND OF THEIR SON
R.D. SUTHERLAND, PROVOST 1914-1920'
The path is rutted in places and can be muddy, but despite the steepness the summit can be reached in a matter of minutes. If approaching from the Cairnpapple Hill car park, another path climbs the northern flank from the road, this is less defined than the path from the south.