Friar's Brae is a comparatively new name for this route into Linlithgow. Generations of Linlithgow folk would have known it as Cadgers' Brae, a cadger being a travelling salesman, a hawker or pedlar, many of whom would have used this route. The suspicion is that when the private housing development was built up the road, the builders feared that the name Cadger with its, erronious in this case, connotations with scrounging would deter buyers so they opted for the more socially acceptable Friars' Brae. A similar thought process changed Cobblers' Lane into Lovers' Lane. The powers that be have gone some way to correcting this by opting for the halfway house of Shoemakers' Lane. Bit of a cop out here!
NT0076 : Friars Brae