Located atop the mound and beside Linlithgow Palace the building stands testimony to the power and influence of pre-Reformation Roman Catholicism.

One such was Linlithgow priest Ninian Winzet, who courageously stood up to more militant reformers who wished to see an end to Roman influence.

It is thought that Patrick Frenche fled the country along with his fellow believer Ninian Winzet who was "…expelled, banished, and shut out of my kindly toun of Linlithgow and my tender friends…".

The post-Reformation era saw Roman Catholicism in disarray and the 1567 Act of Parliament criminalising the saying or hearing of Mass means that there is little record of how the faithful met for worship.

It is known that there were travelling priests who must have visited the town but little is recorded until much later when the arrival of large numbers of Irish families highlighted the dearth of religious care in Linlithgow.

Details of Catholicism in the area remain scarce until around the middle of the 19th century when, as a consequence of the famine in Ireland, there was a large influx of Irish Catholics to Scotland.

Officially dedicated in 1893, such was the fervor of the then Roman Catholic population of Linlithgow for a permanent place of worship that Mass was first celebrated in the partially completed building on St. Valentine's Day 1888.

Although the building and the parish community it represents are now only 108 years old St. Michael's Roman Catholic Church Linlithgow has a long and chequered history.

In the late 19th century the many Irish workers attracted to Linlithgow by the promise of jobs in the area's expanding oil shale industry wanted a permanent place to worship.

Father Andrew Smith quickly took up their cause and gained permission for Mass to be celebrated on Sundays in the premises of Spence's Tannery located in one of the riggs off the High Street.

Acutely aware of the high cost of building a new church and of how little they could spare from their small incomes they were nonetheless actively engaged in saving for their own premises when their prayers were heard and answered.

A good pastor he quickly associated himself with the needs of his parishioners and "…advertised in the 'Glasgow Observer' that he intended holding a grand bazaar, 'to raise funds for the erection of a church dedicated to Queen Mary'."

(Indeed, lodged in the archives is the ceremonial trowel inscribed - "Presented to His Grace Archbishop Smith by the Members of the Catholic Congregation, Linlithgow on the occasion of his laying the foundation stone of the Mary Queen of Scots Memorial Church.

Another memorable development of Father McGovern is the Laetare International Youth Centre which he opened in 1942 (originally a small two bedroomed cottage).

Classes were originally held in the Baird Hall and Catholic pupils came from other villages close to Linlithgow, many travelling on foot each day.

The health conditions in and around the town often caused further problems for the teachers and on several occasions the school had to be closed temporarily due to infectious diseases.

In the mid 1990s, with the closure of St. Mary's, to make way for the new Secondary School in Livingston, Linlithgow pupils changed to St. Kentigern's Blackburn.

Today, the teachers of both St. Joseph's and St. Kentigern's work in close partnership with our local Priest and the parents of the parish to provide a thriving Catholic Education for the children.