Old pictures of Bo'ness

BORROWSTOUNNESS (or, as it is now generally pronounced, Bo'ness) is a parish, seaport town and police burgh, in the poor combination and small debt court district of Linlithgow. By a Local Government Board Order, dated 8th February, 1895, under section 51 of the Local Government (Scotland) Acts of 1889 and 1894, and which came into operation 15th May, 1895, the parish is now. for civil purposes, united to the parish of Carriden and also includes the villages of Borrowstoun and Newtown. The burgh has also been extended from the same date and now includes on the east side the suburban villages of Grangepans, Cowdenhill and Bridgeness, and on the west side the mining village of Kinneil.

The town is built on low ground on the south shore of the Firth of Forth and is 18 miles west from Edinburgh, 9 west from South Queensferry, 3 north from Linlithgow and 8 east by-north from Falkirk, and has a terminal station on the Monkland section of the North British railway. A tract of flat but rich alluvial land called the "Carse of Kinneil " lies to the north-west, and the beach from thence eastward is low ground lying between a high bank landward, and a great expanse of muddy silt extending at ebb tide to the sea : all the rest of the parish declines gradually from Irongath Hill to the west and north. The soil is deep loam and is well cultivated. The town consists principally of two streets, running eastward and terminating in one of nearly the same length, and the greater portion of the houses appear to be of ancient date.

Slater’s Royal National Commercial Directory of Scotland, 1903