Located on a wedge of land between the River Almond and Linhouse water, between Livingston and East Calder, the village of Mid Calder moved from the old county of Midlothian to West Lothian with local government reorganisation in 1974. Smaller than both West and East Calder, Mid Calder was where traditional drove roads came together at the river crossing but grew in the 18th Century as a coaching stop on the Glasgow-Edinburgh road and then through the production of shale oil at nearby Pumpherston. By the early 19th C., with its nine public houses, the village had a reputation for drunken revelry. Today, Mid Calder is a quiet conservation village, dominated by the new town of Livingston on its north and west sides. It benefits from a primary school, a post office and a few shops. Its notable buildings include the Kirk of Calder (St. John's Parish Church) and Calder House (both 16th-century), the seat of the Sandilands, later the Lords Torphichen, from 1350. In 1556, John Knox celebrated communion according to Presbyterian rites for the first time at Calder House. The Almondell and Calderwood Country Park runs along the Linhouse Water to the southeast of Mid Calder.
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