The succession of Carboniferous rocks between Bathgate and Linlithgow includes thick limestones and lava flows, up to 500 metres thick, of upper Dinantian to lower Silesian (Namurian) age.

          The succession dips gently westwards and lies above oil shales over to the east - of great economic importance in the 19th and early 20th century, after James ("paraffin") Young discovered the process for recovering hydrocarbons from them.  The waste bings of red-weathered shale are a distinctive feature of the West Lothian landscape to the east of the area visited.  On top of the Bathgate succession, coal measures of middle Silesian (Westphalian) age extend far to the west.

          At the former water-storage reservoir of Petershill, one kilometer to the north-east of Bathgate, limestones rich in brachiopods, crinoids and corals are well displayed.  East Kirkton quarry is close by, and is famed for the discovery made there by Stan Woods of possibly the world's oldest known fossil reptile, Westlothiana Lizziae, now on display in the National Museum of Scotland. Further north, igneous intrusions underlie The Knock and Cairnpapple Hill.  The latter, the highest summit in West Lothian, was not visited, but is an important pre-historic site and an impressive viewpoint on a good day. Another good viewpoint is to be found a little further north at Witchcraigs, where lettered stones have been set into a sheltering wall, and represent local geology.

        Much of the geology around the Bathgate-Linlithgow area is obscured by extensive sheets of glacial boulder clay.