Ballantrae is a community in Carrick,

South Ayrshire South Ayrshire (; , ) is one of thirty-two council areas of Scotland, covering the southern part of Ayrshire. It borders onto Dumfries and Galloway, East Ayrshire and North Ayrshire. South Ayrshire had an estimated population in 2021 of 112,45 ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

Topography

The name probably comes from the

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic (, ; Endonym and exonym, endonym: ), also known as Scots Gaelic or simply Gaelic, is a Celtic language native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a member of the Goidelic language, Goidelic branch of Celtic, Scottish Gaelic, alongs ...

, meaning the 'town by the beach'.. The beach consists of shingle and sand and offers views of

Ailsa Craig Ailsa Craig (; ) is an island of in the outer Firth of Clyde, west of mainland Scotland, upon which microgranite has long been quarried to make curling stones. The now-uninhabited island comprises the remains of a magmatic pluton formed d ...

, the

Isle of Arran The Isle of Arran (; ) or simply Arran is an island off the west coast of Scotland. It is the largest island in the Firth of Clyde and the seventh-largest Scottish island, at . Counties of Scotland, Historically part of Buteshire, it is in the ...

and

Kintyre Kintyre (, ) is a peninsula in western Scotland, in the southwest of Argyll and Bute. The peninsula stretches about , from the Mull of Kintyre in the south to East Loch Tarbert, Argyll, East and West Loch Tarbert, Argyll, West Loch Tarbert in t ...

. The caves at

Bennane Head Bennane Head is a tapering piece of land formed of hard rock, projecting into the Firth of Clyde, in South Ayrshire, west of Scotland. At the northern end of Ballantrae Bay, southwest of Girvan. A cave in the cliff under the headland is sai ...

and

Balcreuchan Port Balcreuchan Port or Balcruachan Port (NX0908878) is a bay and raised beach site in the parish of Colmonell, close to Bennane Head and Port Vad (NX091870) in South Ayrshire, Scotland. It is well known for its cave (NX099876) with its links to th ...

are nearby. Both are associated with the legend of

Sawney Bean Alexander "Sawney" Bean (sometimes also given as Sandy Bane, etc.) is a legendary figure, said to have been the head of a 45-member clan in Scotland in the 16th century that murdered and cannibalised over 1,000 people in 25 years. According to ...

. Ballantrae has lent its name to a subdivision of the

Arenig In geology, the Arenig (or Arenigian) is a time interval during the Ordovician period and also the suite of rocks which were deposited during this interval. History The term was first used by Adam Sedgwick in 1847 with reference to the "Areni ...

group, which is the name applied to the lowest stage of the

Ordovician The Ordovician ( ) is a geologic period and System (geology), system, the second of six periods of the Paleozoic Era (geology), Era, and the second of twelve periods of the Phanerozoic Eon (geology), Eon. The Ordovician spans 41.6 million years f ...

system.

History

The Kennedy family built

Ardstinchar Castle Ardstinchar Castle is a late medieval castle at Ballantrae, in the west coast of Ayrshire at the mouth of the River Stinchar. It was built by Hugh Kennedy of Ardstinchar in the mid-15th century. In the 1770s, the castle was demolished and the sto ...

in the 1420s. It survived until the 1770s when it was demolished and stone used to build a bridge over the river Stinchar, as well as houses in Ballantrae, including the Kings Arm's Hotel. The first kirk in Ballantrae was built as a mausoleum containing a memorial to Gilbert Kennedy, Baron of Bargany and Ardstinchar, in about 1604. It became a part of the new parish kirk in 1617, replacing St Cuthbert's Kirk on the lands of Kirkholm. The ruined mausleum surives today as the

Kennedy Aisle The Kennedy Aisle or Bargany Aisle at (NX 08379 82444) Ballantrae, South Ayrshire is a vaulted burial chamber and crypt containing a large mural memorial, the Kennedy Monument, an ornately carved stone monument dated to between 1602 and 1605 tha ...

, part of Ballantrae Old Cemetery. In June 1673, while holding a

conventicle A conventicle originally meant "an assembly" and was frequently used by ancient writers to mean "a church." At a semantic level, ''conventicle'' is a Latinized synonym of the Greek word for ''church'', and references Jesus' promise in Matthew 18: ...

at Knockdow near Ballantrae,

Alexander Peden Alexander Peden (162626 January 1686), also known as "Prophet Peden", was one of the leading figures in the Covenanter movement in Kingdom of Scotland, Scotland. Life Peden was born at Auchincloich Farm near Sorn, East Ayrshire, Sorn, Ayrsh ...

was captured by Major William Cockburn, and condemned by the Privy Council to four years and three months' imprisonment on the

Bass Rock The Bass Rock, or simply the Bass (), is an island in the outer part of the Firth of Forth in the east of Scotland. Approximately offshore, and north-east of North Berwick, it is a steep-sided volcanic plug, at its highest point, and is home ...

and a further fifteen months in the Edinburgh Tolbooth. The

Ballantrae Windmill The Ballantrae Windmill,Hume, p.48 on Mill Hill was a late 17th or early 18th century vaulted tower windmill, the ruins of which are located above the old raised beach cliffs on the outskirts of the village of Ballantrae in South Ayrshire, Scot ...

of 1696 on Mill Hill above the raised beach cliffs is one of the oldest industrial buildings in Scotland. The present church was built in 1819.

James Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape James Lyle Mackay, 1st Earl of Inchcape, (11 September 1852 – 23 May 1932), known as Sir James Mackay from 1894 to 1911, was a British businessman and colonial administrator in India who became Chairman of the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navi ...

of Strathnaver, was the owner of

Glenapp Castle Glenapp Castle, formerly the family seat of the Earl of Inchcape, is now a luxury hotel and restaurant located about southeast of Ballantrae, South Ayrshire, Scotland.Coventry, Martin (2001). ''The Castles of Scotland''. Musselburgh: Goblinshe ...

on the eponymous estate, and flowering shrubs spell out the name of his daughter on the opposite side of the glen.Ayrshire Post article - So Brave and so Beautiful
/ref> This daughter,

Elsie Mackay Elsie Mackay (21 August 1893 – 13 March 1928) was a British actress, jockey, interior decorator and pioneering aviator who died attempting to cross the Atlantic Ocean with Walter Hinchliffe in a single engined Stinson Detroiter. Her stage nam ...

, perished in an attempt to become the first female transatlantic aviator in 1928. She is commemorated by a

stained glass Stained glass refers to coloured glass as a material or art and architectural works created from it. Although it is traditionally made in flat panels and used as windows, the creations of modern stained glass artists also include three-dimensio ...

window in the

chancel In church architecture, the chancel is the space around the altar, including the Choir (architecture), choir and the sanctuary (sometimes called the presbytery), at the liturgical east end of a traditional Christian church building. It may termi ...

of the church at Ballantrae. The Glenapp Castle has been converted into a luxury hotel.

Literature

When he was in the

Samoan Islands The Samoan Islands () are an archipelago covering in the central Pacific Ocean, South Pacific, forming part of Polynesia and of the wider region of Oceania. Political geography, Administratively, the archipelago comprises all of the Samoa, Indep ...

writing his novel ''

The Master of Ballantrae ''The Master of Ballantrae: A Winter's Tale'' is an 1889 novel by the Scottish author Robert Louis Stevenson, focusing upon the conflict between two brothers, Scottish noblemen whose family is torn apart by the Jacobite rising of 1745. He wo ...

'',

Robert Louis Stevenson Robert Louis Stevenson (born Robert Lewis Balfour Stevenson; 13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, essayist, poet and travel writer. He is best known for works such as ''Treasure Island'', ''Strange Case of Dr Jekyll ...

remembered and borrowed the name of the town he had visited on walking tours, but the setting for the novel is not that town.

People from Ballantrae

* William Hunter (1861–1937),

surgeon In medicine, a surgeon is a medical doctor who performs surgery. Even though there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon is a licensed physician and received the same medical training as physicians before spec ...

Struan Stevenson Struan John Stirton Stevenson (born 4 April 1948) is a Scottish politician. He was the Conservative Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for Scotland from 1999 to 2014 and chair and Vice Chair of the Committee on Fisheries, and was also a memb ...

(1948–), former

Tory A Tory () is an individual who supports a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalist conservatism which upholds the established social order as it has evolved through the history of Great Britain. The To ...

MEP

External links

Ballantrae Website - information on the village of Ballantrae, South Ayrshire

References

Villages in Carrick, Scotland Parishes in Ayrshire {{SouthAyrshire-geo-stub