Armadale Tourist Information

Armadale, West Lothian, known locally as 'The 'Dale', is a former mining town, which straddles the Edinburgh-Glasgow 'Great Road', near the M8, about two miles west of Bathgate, and 30 minutes by road from Edinburgh Airport.

Formerly known as Barbauchlaw, it was purchased in 1790 by Sir William Honeyman who named it Armadale after a town on his Sutherland estates.

In the nineteenth century, the hamlet became a popular industrial area because of its brick-clay, coal, ironstone and limestone deposits. After the arrival of the railway in 1855, and the extension of the Edinburgh-Bathgate line to Airdrie in 1861, Armadale became a burgh (1864). Its brickyards, quarries and steelworks provided work for its inhabitants until the industrial decline of the 1970s.

Armadale is known for its famous public house, The Goth, based on the Swedish Gothenburg system; its Speedway Stadium; its Armadale Thistle Football team; and its historical sites such as the site of Ogilface Castle, on land given to the De Bosco family by David I.

Armadale is now a rapidly developing community of around 10,000 inhabitants. Its many recent housing developments promise a bright future for the community.

More information about the town, past and present, can be found on www.ArmadaleWestLothian.co.uk

Description by Rosie Wells