Getting there
You can either get the train from Glasgow Central to Livingston South Railway Station or take the car.
To go by car
Although this seems a long way, once you’re on the M8 it’s a very easy journey taking about 40 minutes. Leave the M8 at the main exit for Livingston on the A899 signposted for the Town Centre, Designer Outlet, etc. The slip road curves round to cross the motorway and come to the roundabout with the whale arch. Ignore all turn-offs to right or left, following the signs to the A71 to West Calder, Kilmarnock etc. At Lizzie Bryce’s roundabout for the A71, go right round taking the third exit, signposted A71, West Calder, Bankton etc. You are now on Bankton Road. Take the first exit to the left, now sign-posted Murieston, Bankton and South Livingston Railway Station (EH54 9AP) with the red railway logo. At the T junction turn left, similarly sign-posted, and follow this road round in a huge arc to another roundabout and turn left. You’re at a row of shops (Co-op) etc and the very obvious railway. There is parking here.
The walk
Go towards the shops to find a tunnel underneath the railway bearing right past the nursery school to a T-junction of woodland paths. Turn right (you’ll come back from the opposite direction at the end of the walk) and follow the signs for the Murieston Trail, a tree-lined driveway with the Murieston Water below you. This path winds above the water, slightly twisting around housing etc, for a mile to arrive at a gate on the left and a large Notice Board signalling Campbridge Loch. Turn in here and come to a tree-bench.
You can turn left or right around the loch but the left-hand turn is perhaps the more attractive. The left-hand path comes down to a junction of paths: go straight on towards the road and just before another entrance into the park, turn sharp left again. Then take a glorious path beside the Murieston Water flooded with meadowsweet, foxgloves etc. The path is firm, over chicken wire and little bridges where the going might have been be ever-so-slightly-slippery, before reaching a main bridge on the left which will take you back to the railway station and car park if you’ve had enough. Otherwise, continue on, turning left and then right with the water.
Turn right across a bridge (with a bench on the left) and follow this surfaced path right round towards a football pitch and play swings etc. A sign-post directs walkers up to Murieston Road – a busy road at a very nasty bend. Cross over to the right making for the litter bins and then go through a gate. Go straight on here and then right following a path which literally goes round two sides of a square. About half-way round there’s a track on the right with a large notice leading to a Site of Special Scientific Interest. This crosses the railway line and comes down to a clearing with path to the left. This is very overgrown in the summer but does continue, parallel with the river valley below, steeply down under a magnificent railway viaduct and the re-joins the original track.
If you wish to avoid this overgrown path, continue on past the track to the SSSI to a junction of paths. Take the path sign-posted to Oakbank which is more-or-less straight on. Continue along this path, down under the railway, through a tunnel under the A899 and into Oakbank.
Here turn left and follow the path alongside the A899 before quickly curving away to a little bit of Oakbank. Ignore a sign-post and look for a large wooden post on the left marking the path to take down to Murieston Water . This is difficult to find . It goes down steeply to the Murieston Water where you turn left. After a lovely bit of river walking, go back under the road and walk along a ‘boulevard’ beside the river to a dead-end. Turn right and up to a bus shelter. Just behind the bus shelter, the path continues and just as you’re feeling that you can walk no more, turn right and into Livingston South Railway Station.