Ballantrae (Gael. baile-na-traigh, ` town on the shore '), a fishing village and a coast parish of Carrick, SW Ayrshire. The village lies in the NW corner of the parish, between the sea-shore and the right bank of the Stinchar, which here, at ½ mile from its mouth, is crossed by a three-arched bridge. It is 13 miles SSW of its post-town Girvan, and 10 WSW of Pinwherry station on the Girvan and Portpatrick Junction railway (1876); with a one main street, it has a branch of the Commercial Bank, an hotel, a public hall and reading-room, a post office with money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, a neat parish church (rebuilt 1819; 600 sittings), a Free church, and a school, which, with accommodation for 219 children, had (1879) an average attendance of 143, and a grant of £100,11s. The tidal harbour, constructed at a cost of £6000, is a basin excavated from the solid rock, with a strong pier built upon a rocky ledge; and Ballantrae is centre of the south-western fishery district, in which, during 1879, there were cured 25,428 barrels of white herrings, besides 6882 cod, ling, and hake, taken by 569 boats of 1363 tons, the persons employed being 952 fishermen and boys, 78 fish-curers, 49 coopers, and some 800 others, while the total value of boats, nets, and lines was estimated at £11,375-figures that indicate a great advance over preceding years. A century since the village was noted as a smugglers' haunt, a rude and primitive place, but in 1617 it was a burgh of barony; and the picturesque ruins of Ardstinchar Castle, with clock-surmounted tower, still crown a rock close by. The key to Carrick, this was the seat of the Kennedys, lairds of Bargeny, whose feud with the Earls of Cassillis closed (1601) with the slaughter of young Kennedy in a fray near the Brig of Doon (Chambers' Dom. Ann., i. 292, 310,359). Pop. (1831) 456, (1861) 557, (1871) 515, (1881) 742.
The parish is bounded N and E by Colmonell, SE by New Luce and S by Inch in Wigtownshire, SW by the entrance to Loch Ryan, and W by the Irish Channel, 36 miles across. It has an extreme length from N to S of 9 miles, a breadth from E to W of from 41/8 to 8 miles, and an area of 33,8761/3 acres, of which 164 are foreshore and 151¼ water. The coast-line, 9½ miles long, over the first 2, northward from the village, presents a low sandy shore, the Girvan road at one point running only 17 feet above the level of the sea; but elsewhere it is steep and rockbound, rising within 3 furlongs to over 300 and 600 feet, and commanding grand views of Ailsa Craig (11 miles NNW) and the Firth of Clyde, of Ireland and the Rhinns of Galloway. The Stinchar has here a southwesterly course of 4½ miles, on the Colmonell border and through the north-western corner of the parish; 2 miles above the village it is joined by Tig Water, which flows first 3¼ miles northward along the eastern boundary, next 5¼ westward along the northern and through the northern interior. The Water of Luce, too, with the Pinwherran, Laganabeastie, and others of its tributary burns, winds southward into Wigtownshire; but the stream that has shaped the most prominent features of Ballantrae is the shallow Water of App, rising between Smirton and Beneraid hills, and running 6 miles south-westward to Loch Ryan through beautiful Glen App. With the north-eastward flowing Dunnock Burn, an affluent of the Tig, it divides the parish into two nearly equal halves, in the western of which from S to N rise Sandloch Hill (803 feet), Penderry (1075), Carlock (1054), Auchencrosh (1067), Smirton (1213), Big Fell (1032), and Leffie Donald Hill (760), with Cairn Hill (539), Benumbing (739), and Knockdhu (755) beyond the Tig. In the eastern are Muillbane (741 feet), Altimeg (1270), Highmilldown (1104), Milljoan (1320), Beneraid (1435; a station of the Ordnance Survey, 4&hy. miles SE of the village), Benaw (1380), Strawarren Fell (1040), Wee Fell (850), Millmore (1052), and Loch Hill (870); whilst in the SE, flanking the Water of Luce, are Bennan Hill (1157), Park Hill (761), Ardnamoil (944), and Drumbracken (803). Triangular Killantringan Loch (3 x 1 furl.) lies 2¼ miles S by E of the village. The rocks belong to the Lower Silurian; the soils are alluvial in the valleys, light and sandy towards the NW coast, and generally moorish on the uplands. Less than a fifth of the whole area is arable, besides some 370 acres under plantation; and dairy-farming forms a chief source of wealth. Mansions or summer lodges are Finnart House (Rt. F. Kennedy), Glenapp House (James Hunter), Glenapp Lodge (G. Oliver), Balkissock House (Arthur Hughes Onslow), Gurphur House (D. M`Gibbon), Auchairno House (C. Hunter), and Auchenflower (P. Walker); and 7 proprietors hold each an annual value of £500 and upwards, 12 of between £100 and £500, and 4 of from £20 to £50. In the presbytery of Stranraer and synod of Galloway, this parish was formerly called Kirkcudbright-Innertig; and its church, St Cuthbert's (anciently held by Crossraguel Abbey), stood up to 1617 near the confluence of the Tig and the Stinchar, where some ruins may yet be seen. In 1874 the Glenapp portion, which has a post office under Girvan, was formed into a quoad sacra parish. There are four public schools, in addition to the one in the village -at Auchenflower, 2¾ miles E by N; Ballachdowan, 3 miles S; Glenapp, 61/8 miles S; and Shennas. With total accommodation for 179 children, these had, in 1879, an average attendance of 93, and grants amounting to £114,11s. 11d. Valuation (1880) £15,213,16s. Pop. (180l) 836, (1831) 1506, (1851) 1801, (1871) 1277, (1881) 1442.—Ord. Sur., sh. 7,1863.
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