Whitecross, Falkirk

Whitecross is a small village within the Falkirk council area, close to the boundary of West Lothian council in Scotland. It lies 2.0mi west-southwest of Linlithgow and 2.5mi south-east of Polmont on the west bank of the River Avon.The United Kingdom 2001 census reported the population as 819.Manuel Junction, where the branch line from Bo'ness used by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society meets the Glasgow Queen Street station to Edinburgh Waverley station main line, lies north-east of Whitecross. The main local industries were a brickworks and coal mining, both now ceased. The Avon Aqueduct carries the Union Canal across the River Avon just south of Whitecross.The ruins of Manuel Priory are close to Whitecross on the eastern, West Lothian, bank of the Avon. This was a Cistercian convent founded, or perhaps re-founded, in the reign of King Malcolm IV of Scotland (1153 - 1165). The remains of the 15th century Haining Castle lie in the grounds of the former Manuel brickwork north-east of Whitecross.