About

Heartlands is no ordinary development. Located in the heart of Scotland, our ethos is to create a destination where people want to live, work, and spend time in a green and open environment.

This vision has already started to come to life with a community of new homeowners and families already living here, as well as well-known businesses looking to invest in the area.

One of the characteristics of Heartlands we’re most proud of is the variety of homes on offer. We want to provide the most extensive choice of property styles to appeal to all, from families and first-time buyers to professionals and retirees.

Business at Heartlands has also taken off! Perfectly placed halfway between Edinburgh and Glasgow with its very own M8 junction – Junction 4a, well-connected local rail and bus networks, and a potential workforce on the doorstep.

At the core of the Heartlands vision is our belief in creating a community where people aspire to live, connecting the beautiful wide-open spaces with footpaths and cycle ways. Our commitment to the environment is also reflected in the site’s recycling and reusing of natural resources, preserving our link to the natural history of Heartlands and the surrounding countryside.

Now is your chance to be in the heart of it.

Our History

The site that is now Heartlands is completely unrecognisable from its recent past. The growing community was once the centre of Whitburn’s deep coal mining industry and home to Polkemmet Colliery.

The colliery opened its doors in 1922 and by the 1940s the site was flourishing. Its coal production peaked in the 1950s and by 1984 it was the second largest employer in West Lothian with just under 1,400 employees.

In April 1985 the National Coal Board announced its intention to close the colliery, and by 1986 Polkemmet Colliery doors were closed and the derelict old colliery buildings were demolished. Left behind however, were the many colliery spoil heaps which littered the barren landscape. Dominating the lifeless landscape was Bing 3, known locally as “the Burning Bing” – a huge conical mountain of colliery spoil that could be seen from miles around, while the smell of ‘rotten eggs’ hung in the air.

The contaminated wasteland looked destined to remain a blight on the landscape until 2004 – when Ecosse Regeneration started on the regeneration of the site that would become Heartlands.

The Birth of Heartlands

Visionary local business Ecosse Regeneration had a dream to bring the land back to life as a new community for the 21st Century. This new community would benefit from mixed-tenure housing and local employment opportunities, combined with a vibrant landscape and tourism facilities. That vision was Heartlands.

The journey to transform a desolate landscape into Heartlands would be costly, time-consuming and challenging, but this was a challenge that has meant a rebirth, a new beginning for the area.

Winning the hearts and minds of the local people as well as gaining the invaluable support of West Lothian Council and the Coal Authority was the first step. We needed everyone to trust that this ambitious plan for Heartlands was deliverable. Once they were on board, work to remove Bing 3 started at the end of 2006 and within the year the “Burning Bing” had been successfully and safely removed.

That’s when the big recycling plan kicked into action. Wherever possible, resources from the site were preserved to be reused at a later date in the regeneration. Trees were removed from the barren landscape and brought back to life in the Heartlands nursery before being replanted across the new look site.

Today, the Heartlands vision is beginning to take shape, with well known housebuilders, a multinational corporation, well-known international businesses, and new infrastructure already here.

Thanks to the passion of the whole Heartlands team, the future is bright here, with the community and neighbouring communities benefiting for their dedication for generations to come.

And now is your time to be in the heart of it.