Before the building of a new turnpike road between Edinburgh and Glasgow in 1786 the village of Armadale was little more than a rural farm community but its location at a main highway junction brought additional traffic and a toll house was built where the new road intersected with an existing road in the east of the estate. The estate comprising the lands of Barbauchlaw was sold to Sir William Honeyman in 1790 and upon his elevation to the bench in 1797 he took the title of Lord Armadale (from his mother's estate in Sutherland) and this name was then applied to the township