Forest bathing at North Wood, Livingston

North Wood covers 35 hectares between Dechmont and Livingston, squeezed between the A89 and the M8. The western end is older woodland that once belonged to the North Lodge of the Dechmont House estate; the rest was planted with conifers in the 1960s and 1970s and is being turned into native broadleaved woodland by the Woodland Trust, which bought it in 1996. Oak, beech, ash, silver birch, rowan and holly grow here, and roe deer are about. Old hedgebanks and drystone dykes show the farmland it used to be.

The western end is the place to slow down among bigger trees. About five kilometres of paths, some surfaced and some mown grass, run mostly in lines along the wood, with a few loops at the eastern end, and connect into Livingston's greenway network. Paths can be muddy and steep near the A89. There is no car park, so park on nearby streets in Dechmont or walk in from Livingston North station.