Archaeologists uncover Scotland’s earliest standard gauge railway at Tranent-Cockenzie Waggonway, dating to 1775—predating Carron Ironworks line.

The discovery was made during excavations on the historic Tranent–Cockenzie Waggonway in East Lothian.

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PRE-ORDER - BOOK WILL BE DISPATCHED TO YOU AFTER RELEASE DATE OF 15/08/25 In this book Ed Bethune and Anthony Dawson from the 1722 Waggonway Project take the reader on a century long tour of the earliest of Scottish railways, beginning in 1722 with the Tranent–Cockenzie Waggonway and ending with the Garnkirk & Glasgow Railway of 1831, the first ‘modern’ railway in Scotland. Scottish railway history began in 1722 when William Dickson commenced work on the Tranent–Cockenzie Waggonway. Built entirely in wood and designed to carry coal from pits at Tranent to Salt Pans at Cockenzie, it was the first railway to be built in Scotland. Developing first in the most industrialised parts of the country, in the Lothians and later around Glasgow, wooden and iron railways flourished in no small part thanks to the work of Robert Stevenson. This publication aims to make the brand-new information from the archival and archaeological work into Scotland’s earliest railways accessible to all, helping set the context for the beginnings of the Scottish railway network as conceived by trailblazers William Dickson, William Adam and Robert Stevenson. Published by: Amberley Publishing

The Waggonway Project's Annie Rayner tells the story of how a special piece of local art history has arrived back in Cockenzie & Port Seton.In the autumn of 2022, we found an attractive painting of Co...