Livi Skatepark

The Livi began with a local skater, Kenny Omond, who had seen the Californian scene for himself and in July 1977 asked Livingston Development Corporation, which ran the new town, to build a proper concrete park. The corporation agreed in early 1978 to a large central skatepark in Almondvale Park.

The architect, Iain Urquhart, did his homework. He and his wife Dee, a keen skater who helped set up the Scottish Skateboard Association, toured Californian parks such as the Big O and Skate Ranch, and looked at parks in southern England too. He gave the bowls flatter bottoms than was usual then and built his own 'transition machine' to get the curves smooth, working in the wet concrete himself.

Built in the second half of 1980 at a cost of about £48,000, part-funded by the Scottish Sports Council as an experimental project, it opened in May 1981 as the Rock'n'Roll Skatepark. The centrepiece was the Double Bowl, two deep interlocking round bowls, alongside a large reservoir with a halfpipe and bank, and even a climbing wall. Word spread fast: Bones Brigade riders including Steve Caballero came in 1982, and Tony Hawk stopped by on tour in 1991.

It opened just as the first boom was fading. In 1984 the corporation floated the idea of filling the bowls in, but Omond showed there were still committed skaters and that BMX riders could use it too, and the park survived. Coping went on the Double Bowl in 1987, and in 1992, when hardly any concrete parks were being built anywhere, Omond designed an extension with two long parallel bowls.

West Lothian Council added a third phase in 2015 with a fullpipe, more bowls and a street and beginners' area. In February 2024 Historic Environment Scotland listed the park at Category B, the first skatepark in Scotland to be listed and only the second in the UK after the Rom.

The Livi is still free and open to skaters, BMX riders, scooters and rollerskaters, and the annual jam that started in 1984 is one of the longest-running in skating. In spring 2026 the council closed it for around six weeks of concrete repairs and resurfacing.