Ballygrant () is a small village on the
Inner Hebrides
The Inner Hebrides (; Scottish Gaelic: ''Na h-Eileanan a-staigh'', "the inner isles") is an archipelago off the west coast of mainland Scotland, to the south east of the Outer Hebrides. Together these two island chains form the Hebrides, whic ...
island of
Islay
Islay ( ; gd, Ìle, sco, Ila) is the southernmost island of the Inner Hebrides of Scotland. Known as "The Queen of the Hebrides", it lies in Argyll just south west of Jura, Scotland, Jura and around north of the Northern Irish coast. The isl ...
of the western coast of
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 village is within the parish of Killarow and Kilmeny.
Ballygrant (Baile a' Ghràna) is the longest established village on Islay, pre-dating the
clearance and distillery villages on the coast, and nearby place names suggest connections to
Viking
Vikings ; non, víkingr is the modern name given to seafaring people originally from Scandinavia (present-day Denmark, Norway and Sweden),
who from the late 8th to the late 11th centuries raided, pirated, traded and se ...
times.
In the early 1870s, Kirkman Finlay, the new owner of the
Dunlossit Estate pulled down the old thatched huts and built new cottages for his tenants which he let at nominal rents. He also re-opened the Lead Mines in the village under the superintendence of Mr Vircoe, a cornish mining engineer.
Ballygrant means 'the town of the grain'
and the water-powered mill, now demolished, was turning oats into meal until the early 20th century. Later the water wheel powered a sawmill until electricity took over in the late 1960s.The oldest part of the village, where Craigard House stands, is at the junction of the
A846 road
The A846 road is one of the two principal roads of Islay in the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of mainland Scotland and the only 'A' road on the neighbouring island of Jura.
A ferry connects the two islands across the Sound of Islay.
It co ...
, connecting
Port Askaig and
Port Ellen
Port Ellen ( gd, Port Ìlein) is a small town on the island of Islay, in Argyll, Scotland. The town is named after the wife of its founder, Walter Frederick Campbell. Its previous name, ''Leòdamas'', is derived from Old Norse meaning "Leòd's Ha ...
, and the Glen road.
References
External links
Canmore - Islay, Ballygrant Mill site recordCanmore - Islay, Ballygrant, Kilmeny Parish Church site record
Villages in Islay
{{Argyll-geo-stub