Fala, Midlothian

Coordinates: 55°50′02″N 2°53′02″W / 55.834°N 2.884°W / 55.834; -2.884

Fala, is a hamlet in the south-eastern corner of Midlothian, Scotland, and about 15 miles from Edinburgh.

Location

The parish is about five miles long from east to west, and one mile broad from north to south, and contains about 3,120 acres (12.6 km²). It is bounded by the following parishes: Humbie to the east, Soutra (to which it is now conjoined) on the south, Heriot & Stow on the west, and on the north by the detached parts of Borthwick, Cranstoun, and Crichton. Fala Hall Burn rises in the moor to the south of Fala Flow and forms the boundary between Fala and Soutra parishes. The streams eventually run into the Cakemuir Burn above Costerton. Due to its location, the village, and more so Fala Dam due to its topography, can often get cut off from the outside world during heavy snowfalls, with residents known to be snowed in for several days.

Highways

In 1834 a road (today the A68), with a still extant Toll House at Fala, was constructed between Edinburgh and Lauder and it bisects the parish, marking off the cultivated lands to the east from the pastures to the west. To the west of this highway can be traced the King's Road, which is said to have been made by King Malcolm IV to cross the Lammermuirs to Lauderdale. Dere Street, the Roman road, can be traced at various places on the hills towards Channelkirk to the south west of the A68.

Midlothian

Midlothian (/mɪdˈloʊðiən/; Scots: Midlowden, Scottish Gaelic: Meadhan Lodainn) is one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. It borders the City of Edinburgh, East Lothian and the Scottish Borders council areas.

Midlothian was also the name of a historic county formed in the Middle Ages. The county included Edinburgh, and was formerly known as Edinburghshire, or more formally as the County of Edinburgh until 1890. The historic county remains a lieutenancy area and a registration county for which purposes Edinburgh is included.

Midlothian Council area was created in 1996, under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, with the boundaries of the Midlothian district of the Lothian region. The district had been created in 1975, under the Local Government (Scotland) Act 1973, and it consisted of the local government county of Midlothian, minus the burgh of Musselburgh with the areas of Inveresk, Wallyford and Whitecraig being lost to East Lothian, the Calders (East Calder, Midcalder and West Calder) and the Midlothian part of Livingston to West Lothian, the electoral division of Heriot and Stow to the Ettrick and Lauderdale district of Borders Region, and Currie, Balerno, Ratho and Newbridge to Edinburgh.

Edinburghshire (Parliament of Scotland constituency)

Before the Acts of Union 1707, the barons of the sheriffdom of Edinburgh (also called "Edinburgh principal" to distinguish it from "Edinburgh within the constabulary of Haddington", and now known as Midlothian) elected commissioners to represent them in the Parliament of Scotland and in the Convention of the Estates. After the Union, Edinburghshire returned one Member of Parliament to the House of Commons of Great Britain and later to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom.

List of shire commissioners

Sources

References

See also

Midlothian (Scottish Parliament constituency)

Midlothian was a constituency of the Scottish Parliament (Holyrood). It elected one Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) by the plurality (first past the post) method of election. Also, however, it was one of nine constituencies in the Lothians electoral region, which elected seven additional members, in addition to nine constituency MSPs, to produce a form of proportional representation for the region as a whole.

For the Scottish Parliament election, 2011, the Midlothian constituency was abolished, with the creation of two new constituencies called Midlothian North and Musselburgh, and Midlothian South, Tweeddale and Lauderdale.

Electoral region

The other eight constituencies of the Lothians region from 1999 to 2011 were Edinburgh Central, Edinburgh East and Musselburgh, Edinburgh North and Leith, Edinburgh Pentlands, Edinburgh South, Edinburgh West, Linlithgow and Livingston.

The region covers the City of Edinburgh council area, the West Lothian council area, part of the Midlothian council area, and part of the East Lothian council area.