Ballantrae is a community in Carrick,

South Ayrshire South Ayrshire ( sco, Sooth Ayrshire; gd, Siorrachd Àir a Deas, ) 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. On 30 June 2 ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. The name probably comes from the

Scottish Gaelic Scottish Gaelic ( gd, Gàidhlig ), also known as Scots Gaelic and Gaelic, is a Goidelic language (in the Celtic branch of the Indo-European language family) native to the Gaels of Scotland. As a Goidelic language, Scottish Gaelic, as well as ...

''Baile na Tràgha'', meaning the "town by the beach". Ballantrae has a

primary school A primary school (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica, and South Africa), junior school (in Australia), elementary school or grade school (in North America and the Philippines) is a school for primary e ...

. The beach consists of shingle and sand and offers views of

Ailsa Craig Ailsa Craig (; sco, Ailsae Craig; gd, Creag Ealasaid) 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 r ...

, the Arran and

Kintyre Kintyre ( gd, Cinn Tìre, ) 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 and West Loch Tarbert in the north. The region immediately north ...

History

In June 1673, while holding a

conventicle A conventicle originally signified no more than an assembly, and was frequently used by ancient writers for a church. At a semantic level ''conventicle'' is only a good Latinized synonym of the Greek word church, and points to Jesus' promise in M ...

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 Scotland. Life Peden was born at Auchincloich Farm near Sorn, Ayrshire, about 1626, and was educated at the U ...

, 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 (), ( gd, Creag nam Bathais or gd, Am Bas) 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 volcan ...

and a further fifteen months in the

Edinburgh Tolbooth The Old Tolbooth was an important municipal building in the city of Edinburgh, Scotland for more than 400 years. The medieval structure, which was located at the northwest corner of St Giles' Cathedral and was attached to the west end of the L ...

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 Navig ...

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, Ballantrae, South Ayrshire, Scotland.Coventry, Martin (2001). ''The Castles of Scotland''. Musselburgh: ...

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

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

stained glass Stained glass is coloured glass as a material or works created from it. Throughout its thousand-year history, the term has been applied almost exclusively to the windows of churches and other significant religious buildings. Although tradition ...

window in the

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

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

Bennane Head Bennane Head is a tapering piece of land formed of hard rock projecting into the Firth of Clyde, Scotland, at the northern end of Ballantrae Bay, southwest of Girvan Girvan ( gd, Inbhir Gharbhain, "mouth of the River Girvan") is a burgh an ...

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 the ...

are nearby. Both are associated with the legend of

Sawney Bean Alexander "Sawney" Bean was said to be the head of a 45-member clan in Scotland in the 16th century that murdered and cannibalized over 1,000 people in 25 years. According to legend, Bean and his clan members were eventually caught by a search ...

Literature

When he was in the

Samoan Islands The Samoan Islands ( sm, Motu o Sāmoa) are an archipelago covering in the central South Pacific, forming part of Polynesia and of the wider region of Oceania. Administratively, the archipelago comprises all of the Independent State of Samoa a ...

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 w ...

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 a ...

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

Geology

Ballantrae has lent its name to a subdivision of the Arenig group, which is the name applied to the lowest stage of the Ordovician System.

People from Ballantrae

* William Hunter (1861–1937),

surgeon In modern medicine, a surgeon is a medical professional who performs surgery. Although there are different traditions in different times and places, a modern surgeon usually is also a licensed physician or received the same medical training as ...

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, in addition to whi ...

(1948–), former

Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. Th ...

MEP

External links

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

References

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