A locality in Falkirk Council Area, which surrounds the village of Whitecross, Manuel is centred 1½ miles (2.5 km) west southwest of Linlithgow. Manuelhaugh is a low-lying strip of land along the left bank of the River Avon to the east of Whitecross, while Manuel Burn falls into the Avon a quarter-mile (0.4 km) to the southwest. The ruins of a Mediaeval religious house, Manuel Nunnery, can be found here, located next to a modern sewage works. Manuel Mill lies beyond, with Manuel House to the west. J.G. Stein's Manuel Brick Works opened in 1928, occupying a vast 49-ha / 122-acre site a half-mile (0.8 km) west northwest of Whitecross. This brick-works still employed more than 1200 people in the early 1970s and 500 in 1986, when the plant won the Queen s Award for Exports, but closed in 2002. Manuel Junction links the Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway, a heritage line operated by the Scottish Railway Preservation Society, with the Edinburgh-Glasgow mainline. There was once a station here, and a more complex junction which connected to the defunct Monkland Railways line. However a passenger platform referred to as Manuel Station re-opened in 2013 as the southern terminus of the Bo'ness & Kinneil Railway.
