The 'Red' Planet?

Well not so much a planet, just a small part of West Lothian. This is part of a shale bing of the South Greendykes South Mine to the North of Broxburn and was for a fair part of my youth some 45 years ago a playground of almost infinite possibilities.
The Bings are the spoil tips from the process to extract shale oil. This was a boom industry in the East central part of Scotland from around 1850 till the last pit closed in 1962. Never mind Texas, Alaska, Saudi Arabia the North Sea etc the first oil rush was in West Lothian, the main reason for the closure was the cost of extraction however if your interested this website will keep you enthralled for hours History of Shale Oil Mining in Scotland .
Having lived in the middle of this network of mines, bings quarries et al I was not acquainted with much of the history of the industry until this website came online.
However to go back to my youth, we seemed to spend entire school holidays exploring the bings on foot, on bikes, lying back looking up at sky (the bings were still warm from the residual heat from the retort process to extract the oil and the tops were home to some rather exotic orchids), playing Cowboys and Indians (and all the variants), getting tired, sore and more than likely a bit bruised and bashed with torn jeans, slightly bent bike, and it never seemed to rain.........
Oh and the Broxburn Oil Company (est 1877) is still technically in business as part of the BP Exploration Company.