Of all the incredible sights he witnessed as he battled north along the banks of the Zambezi, the “thundering smoke” of the widest waterfall in the world would be the one that left explorer and missionary Dr David Livingstone breathless with awe. 

“Scenes so lovely must have been gazed upon by angels in their flight,” he later wrote. “The most wonderful sight I had seen in Africa.”

The Scot was the first European to clap eyes on the remarkable Mosi-oa-Tunya, where the roar of the water is almost deafening and the spray visible up to six miles away.

To mark his discovery, now on the border of Zambia and Zimbabwe, he carved his initials and the date on the bark of a tree and renamed the spot in honour of the Queen, Victoria Falls.

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Thousands of miles away in West Lothian, his close friend and benefactor, shale oil industry pioneer James “Paraffin” Young, was equally thrilled – so much so he set about creating what must rank as one of the strangest of tributes to the great explorer. 

Now the replica Victoria Falls he created at his estate near Polbeth is at the heart of a four-year project to rejuvenate and clean a stretch of the River Almond and its neighbouring River Avon, so wild salmon, sea trout, brown trout and lamprey can return to spawning grounds for the first time in 200 years.

The Limefield Falls – unlike Victoria Falls which is a mile wide and drops 350ft, they are a mere 8ft high – was created as a tribute to the explorer on a stretch of the Almond where dozens of weirs had already been built to serve the mills and generate power for mines and emerging 18th century industries. 

But while each served its purpose during the industrial revolution, the weirs interfered with the river’s natural flow. Fish struggled to navigate their way upstream to spawn, causing numbers to gradually disappear, while pollution from oil shale, coal mining, flax bleaching at the mills, agricultural works and overloaded sewage systems left the water too filthy for them to hope to survive. 

As a result, at one point the River Almond was regarded as the most polluted river of its size in Scotland

The impact from the West Lothian’s industrial heritage was even worse at the River Avon in Bathgate, where it is still so polluted no living thing has been found in its turgid waters. 

In an attempt to revitalise the rivers, the £6.7 million RiverLife project was launched three years ago. It has already seen fish ladders and a weir “by-pass” created at key points of the Almond, and a series of community events designed to encourage local engagement in a river which for many was only regarded as a place to avoid. 

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The RiverLife project also aims to ignite interest in the industrial heritage of the area, once regarded as the oil capital of the world for its shale oil production.

“People did quite a lot of damage to the natural world at that time, minds were on something other than protecting the wildlife,” says Alison Baker, director of Forth Rivers Trust, which is working on the project with West Lothian Council and Edinburgh City Council. 

“But we don’t want to sweep away that industrial heritage. We have to respect it and remind people of what a fantastic and interesting place this is. We know fish keep coming back – you can see salmon and sea trout at the bottom of the river, but they can’t make their way up. They are sitting there, ready to come upstream. Hopefully, this work will help them make their return.”

More than 20 weirs were built on the River Almond in West Lothian, of which eight are regarded as having caused most impact to fish and wildlife. 

Work has already seen a fish passage created at Fair-A-Far, where the weir was built in 1790 to provide a new water source for the iron works at the nearby mill, and at Kirkton Weir, which was built in the 19th century to provide water for Livingston Mill, now Almond Valley Heritage Centre. 

Earlier this year, work was completed on the UK’s largest rock ramp, sited at the 131ft-wide Howden Bridge weir. 

It was originally built to power the New Calder Paper Mill, which produced wrapping paper from the 1800s. The work has seen a ramp constructed between existing islands to form a waterfall-like structure made up of pools and easy leaps to help fish over the weir. 

Another fish bypass has also been created at a weir close to Livingston Rugby Club, which was first constructed for a corn mill. 

Work at Limefield Falls – one of the most historically sensitive sites and also among the largest of weirs on the river – is set to begin in September. It will involve the creation of a gently sloping ramp called a larinier, which will allow the fish to bypass the tumbling water and travel upstream once again. 

“Most of the weirs are considered to be redundant because the reason they were put in is no longer there,” says Ms Baker. But Limefield Falls was put in for a very specific purpose – to replicate Victoria Falls in the heart of West Lothian. It’s said that when Livingstone’s body was brought back to Scotland, James Paraffin Young paid for a couple of African guides to accompany him home. 

“They then lived at his Limefield Estate and were there when the idea of recreating Victoria Falls was conceived.”

It’s thought the two men, known as Susi and Chuma, helped to build the miniature falls in the years after the explorer’s death in 1873. 

Once complete, the Limefield Falls fish bypass will feature a viewing point and information panels telling the story behind their construction and the area’s links with Livingstone.