Garleffin and Lorne Cottage

Garleffin Cottages, Ballantrae and the Ailsa Craig

Garleffin (Gileffan is an old spelling) is a small hamlet of about ten dwellings to the south of Ballantrae. The view above is from the hillside above the cottages looking toward the Ailsa Craig. It used to be on the main road to Stranraer but is now bypassed by the modern A77. It is a wee way up the brae the other side of the river Stinchar from the village. There is now a new bridge too and the old one looks very tiny.

Ailsa Craig is the dark dot on the horizon almost directly over Lorne Cottage. If you would like a picture with better resolution just mailme Len Knott

There were ancient standing stones in the field opposite overlooking the sea until some years ago when the farmer in Nelson's farm nearby destroyed them in the name of efficient farming. I don't have a large scale map handy to give you more details.

There are two rows of cottage dwellings facing the road - the south east end of the north-west row (second white gable from the left) 'Lorne Cottage' was occupied by my wife's great aunt Anne HANNAH until 1948 when she fell down the staircase to her death. She had occupied the cottage since sometime after 1883 when her father John HANNAH or HANNAY, a fisherman, was drowned in a squall off the coast on his way to fish for salmon at Port Beg in Kirkolm parish. His fellow fisherman was John COULTER who was also lost. They had, not long before, put ashore a companion - LYONS from Glenapp whose wife was expecting a child.

Anne and her mother Janet MURDOCH are interred in Ballantrae cemetery. Janet's brother fought at the battle of Alma in the Crimea and lost an arm. He brought home a wedding ring of Russian gold for his sister to marry John HANNAH in 1855.

My wife now wears this ring

The cottages were part of the Lord Inchcape's Glenapp Estate and the rents were collected by his Factor and Water Bailiff 'Tam' WALKER. Lord Inchcape's daughter was the Hon. Elsie Mackay. She had a Stinson Detroiter aeroplane called the Endeavour shipped to UK in the Lusitania and delivered to the now defunct Brooklands motor race track.

In spite of the opposition of her father, she schemed with Capt Hinchliffe, her co-pilot, to be the first woman to fly the Atlantic east to west. They set off secretly from the RAF College at Cranwell on Tuesday 13th of March 1928. Five hours later they were sighted passing over Mizzen Head on the Atlantic coast of County Cork. Two ships reported sighting a plane out at sea. They were not seen again.

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