Why did your Ancestors settle in Kirkliston

Old Kirkliston

Old Parish Records

OPR's began in Kirkliston in 1675. Kirkliston is Parish no 667 in the County of Linlithgow.


The Name

The oldest surviving building in Kirkliston is the church (hence the first half of the village's name). The village used to be called Temple Liston. Temple because the church belonged to the Templar Knights and 'Liston' after a family.


The Early Years

Kirkliston was the location of the first recorded Parliament in Scottish history, the Estates of Scotland met there in 1235, during the reign of Alexander II of Scotland.

The oldest house in the village is "Castle House" which contains a marriage lintel dated 1683.

Kirkliston's real period of growth began in the 1600s when linen weaving got under way.


The 1700 and 1800s

Kirkliston had a whisky distillery in the south of the village since 1795.

By the 1880s and after a series of different owners, Kirkliston Distillery was producing some 700,000 gallons of grain and malt whisky each year. The distillery ceased whisky production in the 1900s, but was later taken over by Scotmalt to produce malt extract for the food industry and for home brew beer kits.

The village later became the Drambuie liqueur manufacturer.





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