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Britain By Car - A Motoring History

Bo'ness

A contraction of the name Borrowstounness, Bo’ness is a former industrial town and port on the Firth of Forth. The town has close associations with James Watt, who experimented in 1764 with his early steam engine in a cottage on the Kinneil estate.

Today Bo’ness is primarily a commuter town for those working in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Falkirk and Grangemouth. It also has the oldest cinema in Scotland – the Hippodrome; now refurbished, it was originally built in 1912.

James Coltart, Triumph TR3, Bo’ness Hill Climb, 6th September 2015, © Tony Thorpe.

Bo’ness Speed Hill Climb

Scotland’s first motor racing venue.

Location
Kinneil Estate (off Provost Road), Bo’ness, West Lothian, EH51 0PR.  

Date
1934 – 1939, 1946 – 1955, 1959 – 1966, and 2008 - present.

Lothians locations